Find a Way
by RnRForever
Summary: After book 5, if you haven't read that, don't read this yet. Some chapters focus on Harry, but the main character is Sirius. There's no way out from beneath the Veil, but nothing is impossible when you really want it...
1. Feelings

It was a strange feeling. Sadness didn't describe it. Imagine standing on solid ground, on a warm day, surrounded by just everything that makes you happy, and suddenly the ground under you giving in and you have nothing left to hold on to, nothing concrete to feel, every happy feeling rushing away from you. Like being right next to a Dementor, but worse. Like being desperate for any little bit of happiness, but it doesn't come. Like floating in mid-air in the middle of nowhere, knowing you will soon fall down, and worse, knowing you won't care when you do just so the pain would end.

That's how Harry felt as he saw Sirius fall through the veil. He kept reliving the moment in his dreams now, the quick fall that seemed to last for an eternity. He still had the same feeling of shock, denial and complete desperation. The moment his heart seemed to sink down to his feet and his soul struggling to jump out of his body after his godfather, but failing when Lupin held him back.

It's been months since the end of last year in Hogwarts, but every night, every second Harry spent alone, the memory of Sirius brought back everything. It might have as well been a few days, Harry didn't know. Time was never definite to him anymore. It felt like he was dreaming. The world went on as it was but Harry watched it from the side, and the way everyone was so normal was strange to him. Nothing felt familiar; nothing raised any happiness within him anymore. He was simply detached from the rest of the world.

Even the constant exchange of letters with his friends didn't make Harry feel better. He pretended he was ok, not wanting them to question him more about Sirius. Any time he spent with them felt forced as Harry felt closed off from his very best friends, pasting the smile on his face just so they wouldn't ask if he was all right…

It was almost time to go. This summer at the Dursleys' wasn't nearly as much of a grudge as ever before. Whether it was because of his friends' threats, or because Harry simply didn't care any more, he did not know. However he knew that in two days he was to return to Hogwarts and hiding his state from his friends was no longer possible.

Sighing heavily, Harry got up from his bed and went to pack up a few things. He was going to stay at the Burrow for the last day before their return to Hogwarts. He packed quickly since he barely unpacked in the first place. Ron was supposed to come pick him up in the evening. They would tell the Dursleys that they're going by car but in fact they would travel using Ms. Figg's fireplace.

A broken mirror was lying in pieces on top of Harry's table. It was the gift from Sirius, and though Harry had broken it out of rage that it wouldn't work, he had to keep it. All attempts to repair it so far had proven useless but Harry was hoping Hermione would find a way to fix it. He gently swept up all the pieces again and put them in a bag. Now he was ready.

Checking the clock, Harry saw that he still had a few hours until Ron's arrival and he lay back on his bed, his thoughts returning to Sirius.

Ok, well I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix just a little while ago and Sirius's death is just devastating. He's my favorite character and I miss him already. The fanfics on this site help a lot. The first day after reading the book, I spent the whole time reading stories about Sirius's death. They're very helpful though I cried quite a lot then. Anyway, I write Friends fics originally, though I deleted them and am reposting now… I put those on hold for now because I can't seem to write about anything other than Harry and Sirius. This is one of at least two stories I am planning to write before getting back to updating Friends. This will be a longer, novel or series type story, and the other one is just a about one-chapter story, just focusing on Harry and Sirius's feelings. Ok, so please review, and notice that this is my first ever attempt at HP stories.

_By the way, I don't own the idea or most of the characters because JKR owns them. My idea of the veil and maybe a few characters will be my own though. Don't sue me…_

_And if you got Sirius fics, mostly sad ones, tell me please, I can never get enough of them right now. Ok so, did you like the first chapter, I know it's little but…_


	2. Renewed Hope

**Eh, I personally think my first chapter was kinda sucky… Oh well, I hope to make it better. The disclaimer still stands. The focus of the story IS Sirius but right now it'll be mostly Harry. And also, I'm going to forget lots of pretty important things such as the birthdays, the OWL results, the new classes for the year, etc because my focus of the story is on Sirius and Harry, and the other stuff, well I don't have enough imagination to write about it. So, sorry about that.**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~__

"No… Don't… Sirius, please, don't. Don't go! Please." Harry mumbled emotionally in his sleep, turning over and over in his bed. Suddenly, his dream seemed to be interrupted and he mumbled something again in protest then cringed and his hand flew up to his forehead. He was still asleep, but it didn't look like his dreams were of his own accord.

_"You can't let him get out." The cold, heartless voice yelled._

_"Master, don't worry." Bellatrix Lestrange shrunk back from the intimidating figure of the Dark Lord. "But… He's not much of a threat to us anyway, is he?" She asked, frightened of angering Voldemort again._

_"You do not know." Voldemort said, without any particular emotion in the statement. "He is extremely dangerous to our kind. Yes, he has not been let out to fight, but if he is freed now… The boy… Without him, we have no worries. But their ties are strong and I'm afraid they are in fact a big danger to us ---" Voldemort suddenly broke off. "Ask no more questions but do as I say. It is not safe right now." Just as Harry's scar ached more and more, Voldemort seemed to realize they were not alone in their conversation…_

Harry woke up from the blinding pain of his scar. Voldemort has not made himself known like this to Harry for the duration of the summer. And Harry knew right away, this wasn't staged; it had been real. And as he realized whom his two biggest enemies had been talking about, Harry felt himself just about return to living. It came as a reality check and suddenly Harry was fully aware of the world around him. And he finally felt something other than endless despair. He felt almost giddy, for the two people he despised the most had just turned on the light at the end of the tunnel for him; for once in the whole summer he had regained hope. Sirius could be saved, and Harry was going to make sure that it would happen. No matter what, he'd find a way to get his godfather back. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had happened all too fast and Sirius was falling into the veil. Oh sure he was surprised, even shocked, but more important emotions ran through his mind. He caught a glimpse of Harry, his eyes widened, and as he fell he heard his godson call out for him desperately but Remus held him back. Still falling, Sirius remembered all the good times he spent with Harry, and emotion overwhelmed him. He fell backwards through the veil into the dark before he could say everything he wanted to tell his godson. He was proud of him, for everything he'd done, for the way he was. Their time hadn't been long enough, though Sirius had a feeling that an eternity wouldn't have been long enough. He wanted to tell Harry how much he loved him, because he loved him more than anything or anyone else in the world, like his own son… And he could tell Harry loved him just as much as a father. But it was too late now, and Sirius was surrounded by endless darkness, and Harry was left on the other side.

It's been a while now, Sirius could tell, but he didn't really know how much time passed. He knew what this place was before he entered it. Still, he hoped against hope that he would see James and Lily. He only gave up on that a little while ago. They had died because of Voldemort and they undoubtedly went to heaven. They didn't have to be stuck here.

Sirius regretted many things about his life: suggesting Lily and James to trust Peter, and later going after him instead of taking care of Harry, and landing in Azkaban… He could have been with Harry much longer if he had controlled his rage. But, Harry grew up to be everything Sirius hoped he would be. He had been trying to make up for all the years he'd been absent in Harry's life, and he was beyond angry when his life had been interrupted like this. From behind the veil, Sirius could only slightly feel what Harry was up to, and that had nothing to do with magic. It's not that he was alone under the veil. Oh no, there were many other beings there, but he felt once again useless. For the third time in his life, Sirius was imprisoned, or just as well as imprisoned because he couldn't get out or help his godson, and he was getting really tired of it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Harry!"

"Ron! How've you been?"

When Ron arrived to the Dursleys' house, Harry was almost surprised that he was truly happy to see him. He didn't have to pretend any longer and he loved seeing his best friend again.

"I've been great, but we've got to get going Harry. Mom won't like it if we're late." Ron didn't like being in Muggle homes, they creeped him out and he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Yeah, all right. Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Dudley… Bye!" They were just as happy as he was at his departure.

Ron and Harry pretended to go to meet Mr. Weasley but as soon as they knew the Dursleys were no longer watching, they turned to Ms. Figg's house and knocked.

"Hey, Harry, dear! Oh hello Ron! Thank God you're here, I was getting worried. Go right this way! Go on!" She nudged them in the direction of her fireplace. "Those awful people, they are… Who knows what would happen if they knew…" She mumbled as Harry and Ron got ready to go.

"The Burrow!" Harry went first, Ron following him, and seconds later they were at the Weasleys' home.

Mrs. Weasley was ready to meet her son and Harry, hugging them, and fussing over Harry and how he's been…

"Mrs. Weasley… Uh why are we not at… The Order Headquarters…?" This had been bothering Harry for a while.

"Well, we took a bit of a break, besides, it'd be suspicious if someone noticed that the members had been missing from their homes for a while." That made sense but Harry still thought it still had something to do with Sirius too.

"We're going back a little after you go back to school." Molly explained further.

After leaving Harry's bags, they headed to Diagon Alley for supplies, and Hermione joined them soon after. They had been to so much shops, Harry had given up trying to remember the names of them. Now, they were at a bookstore. It was really big and neat. The three friends found the books they needed for the new year and then went to take some extra DADA ones. Right behind the DADA row, there was another row, one that didn't seem to fit in with the whole atmosphere of the store. It was filthy and dark and the books were really dusty. While Ron and Hermione were caught up in another argument, Harry went to the mysterious row. It seemed to be hidden, and no one really noticed it, but it seemed to draw Harry into it. Looking at the shelves filled with books, Harry felt a chill run down his back. He took two books out randomly and looked at the titles.

'The Spell Guide' read one of the books. Harry opened it. The front page read: 'This book contains all the spells you need, whether it is for your home, your studies, Dark Magic, or just simple every-day spells. Instructions: See Index on page 3, point your wand at the wanted topic and choose the spells you need.' Harry decided to try it. He tapped his wand on 'Defense Spells' and an unbelievably long list of spells and their descriptions popped up at him.

The second book was almost calling out to him. 'Hidden Places', the title said. Harry flipped through the thick book and suddenly stopped. He could swear he just saw… he flipped back, hoping to find that page again and he did. Clearly displayed on page 513 of the book was a black veil covering an old archway, but not just any veil, THE veil. Eagerly, Harry read through the page. 'The Veil.' the name simply stated, 'It is found in the Department of Mysteries on the 9th floor of the Ministry of Magic, 2nd right door to the left of the spinning hallway. The Veil is the gateway to Death. However, it cannot take people alive, therefore any being that falls through the Veil alive is forced to Wait for nothing until the end of forever. The Veil cannot be escaped.' Harry's hopes fell but he noticed fine print at the bottom of the page, 'See page 990513 for details on how to be saved from beyond the veil.' Harry felt unbelievable, ecstatic relief. He closed the book and rushed out of the secret section, holding the two books tightly with a smile on his face.

"Harry, where've you been?" Hermione asked. "We didn't see you go."

"I was right—" Turning to point to the section of the store he's just been in, Harry noticed it was gone, "--at the Potions section." He lied, "I had forgotten one of the books."

"All right. Well we're pretty much done here, let's go pay for these." Ron concluded. They paid for the books and left the store.

"Hermione, are you going back to the Burrow with us?" Harry questioned.

"Yeah I suppose so. It'll finally give us time to catch up."

But all Harry could concentrate on is getting to read page 990513 of his new book.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**Ok that's it. This is still more of an introductory chapter than anything so if it sucks, I'm sorry. The Voldemort part was weird but basically what I was trying to say was that Sirius and Harry together can cause a lot of trouble to Voldemort and he was telling her to keep Sirius from getting out. Just in case you didn't understand how I wrote it back there. Anyway, please review, it means a lot to me. Sarah, thank you for that, and I love your story The Veil Of Fate, please continue it soon. Also I think my veil might be a bit similar to yours but I really didn't mean for that to happen, sorry. And thanks for your evidence (in your story) it gives me new hope that Sirius will live. Kandice, I'm glad you liked it :) The depression thing, I'm like that too. And don't worry, Sirius is SO coming back! ;)  b****ertiebottsgeorge thanks for understanding and I love your story and Sirius and Laura. I'm jealous of Laura lol. By the way, are you continuing that story or is it over? It's great.**** Ok so once again please review ****JJJJJJJ lol.**


	3. Sneaking Out

**_Ok, thank you for reviewing:). Sorry I couldn't update sooner, but I was gone for a while. A. Dee, well yeah it's at least 990513 pages lol but it's a magical book so I figured that's ok lol. Lelegurl9 thanks a lot, and I'm trying my best. :). Lil Lupin thanks too and well I hope you like this chapter too. _****_Darksymphonia thanks, I'm glad you like it and I'm really trying to hurry. Jen, thank you and I know! I'm totally obsessed with Sirius stories since HP5 too. AJ, I'll have Sirius alive ASAP, don't worry, but nothing good happens easily so don't expect everything to be fixed with no problems. Just warning you lol. I love angst-y stuff so bear with me. Ok, well on to the story (finally), thank you to everyone for reviewing again and I hope you like this chappy too._**

Hermione and Ron haven't minded that Harry was sometimes distant with them. Of course they thought he was still grieving over the loss of his godfather and they left him alone. Really, Harry had been planning to get Sirius back. Apparently, there was only one way to get someone out from under the Veil. But it involved so many things Harry couldn't control, mainly that the person would have to willingly go back into the living world instead of leaving to the peaceful place on the other side. Harry knew that if Sirius chose to go the opposite way, he'd lose his godfather forever, but he had to take the chance. The spell was pretty simple; it opened up the portals on either side of the Veil, and let the person inside decide where they want to go. But first, Harry would have to get into the Ministry and that same room again, and that was the tricky part.

They were returning to Hogwarts the next day, Monday, and Harry couldn't find any time to visit the Ministry before that. And of course he couldn't leave Hogwarts. That was against the rules. 

He was going on Wednesday.

Sirius sighed and lay back against the wall. If that was even a wall. Nothing was definite here and it was hard to tell if anything was anything. Though deep down he knew it was no use, he had tried to talk to the other beings stuck with him. They couldn't hear him, of course. He knew they never would.

Sirius knew he couldn't escape the Veil from the inside. And he had little hope that someone from the living side would get to letting him out. Besides, he was starting to think that if he were given the choice, he'd go to James's side. He doubted Harry needed him. He would never be able to help anyway. Much of his life on that side was spent locked up and he really didn't feel like being protected so much that he had no time to look over Harry. Maybe it was just his time to go finally. His godson was growing up so much and he had so many people caring for him and protecting him… He really didn't need Sirius that much.

With these thoughts, Sirius started to drift off into sleep. He'd stopped the pointless attempts at escaping for today and finally relaxed. It's been a while since he'd really slept.

"Ron! Harry! Hermione! Wake up, you have to get ready!" Mrs. Weasley yelled to the three occupants of one of the rooms upstairs before moving on to wake the others.

Hermione took a few seconds to take in the meaning of that and then jumped up off her bed.

"We're going to Hogwarts today!" She squealed excitedly.

Still in his bed, Ron mumbled something and rolled his eyes at her before turning over and trying to go back to sleep. Harry, however, was up just as quick as Hermione. He, too rolled his eyes at her comment but more good naturally than Ron did. Harry couldn't help but get more anxious every second, waiting for Wednesday to arrive.

"Hermione, don't worry, we know." Harry said, sounding amused and exasperated at his friend's behavior at the same time. He pointed to the calendar on the wall where Hermione had been crossing out the days left until school. "Go on." He smiled at her, gesturing for her to erase the last day left in the August month.

"Oh yeah!" She took her marker and crossed out the last day. No sooner that she did this did the calendar disappear and more or less quiet fireworks exploded all across the small room, making it even more messy than before and making Ron jolt up from his sleep, his eyes wide, at the unexpected noises in the room. Seeing that the cause of the noise was Hermione, Ron lay back down, throwing one of his pillows at her and burying his face in the other. Hermione scoffed and stared at Ron, who couldn't control his laughter. She threw the pillow back at him. "Get up! We'll be late." As she turned her back to him, he mimicked her, making Harry burst out laughing in spite of himself.

In a while, the three friends finally got down, walking slowly and chatting animatedly between each other.

"Well, about time" Mrs. Weasley commented as they came down the stairs towards the kitchen. "Hurry up now or you'll be late!"

They ate and finished packing and in a matter of a few hours, left to the train station. Fred and George had come along to accompany them, providing them with quite a few things from their shop when Mrs. Weasley wasn't looking. Ginny went through the wall first, and then went Harry, Ron and finally Hermione. Molly Weasley made them all promise to write as soon as possible and hugged them all a few times before they left.

"Hey, Hermy, do you think you can fix this mirror for me?" Harry asked Hermione, calling her by her nickname for Hagrid's brother. They were now in their Hogwarts Express compartment, the three of them.

"Don't call me Hermy." She warned. "Did you try _Reparo _yet?" Harry nodded his head, "Hmm ok what about this, _Remontilora_" She said, tapping her wand on the shattered pieces of the mirror. They flew back to their place quickly. "There." She sighed, satisfied with her work.

"Thanks." Harry smiled at her.

"Oh no problem. I wonder why _Reparo_ didn't work though." Hermione wondered out loud.

"I really don't know. Ron, are you going to stay on the Quidditch team this year?" Harry changed the subject quickly.

"Yeah, I will. You're going back to being the Seeker right?" And the three discussed Quidditch right until the end of the journey.

Harry strolled into the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Hermione. It was now their sixth year at Hogwarts. Six long, long years that couldn't have went by faster. With Voldemort set on returning to life, the three friends were always more focused on saving the world than spending time doing things normal friends do. Oh, how he hoped that would change soon, even if he almost knew that it never would.

It was now Tuesday evening and they had just come back from the dinner feast. Every second, Harry got more and more nervous about what he was planning to do. He would escape this morning, after all. Before anyone woke up…

"Harry, are you ok?" Hermione turned to him, concern obvious in all her features.

"Yeah of course, why?" He sounded truly oblivious.

"Well you've been having a shorter attention span than usual today and you have barely eaten, and you seem to stare off into space a lot…" Ron answered for Hermione.

"It's nothing, just overwhelmed from being back here and everything." Harry lied. Neither of his friends looked convinced but they nodded and dropped the subject anyway. Harry felt horrible for not telling them the truth but it was for their own good. That excuse was starting to wear thin and the boy was thankful it would be all over pretty soon.

Harry lay wide awake in his bed, staring at the clock beside him, silently pleading for it to move faster, for his time to come. Finally, after what seemed like a decade, the clock read 2:31 AM and Harry got up, making absolutely no noise. He was already dressed, so he grabbed his Invisibility Cloak, the Marauder's Map, a few pages that he had torn out of his new books, his wand and broomstick and headed off towards the fireplace of the common room.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He said in a barely audible whisper and smiled at the thought of the Marauders. The map revealed itself and Harry checked that the coast was clear. He couldn't just walk out of Hogwarts without anyone spotting him and fly over to the Ministry, of course. Floo powder wouldn't work either. The part of the Ministry that Harry needed to get to wasn't connected to their network. There was only one option left, Apparation. Of course, that was impossible because no one could Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts property, not to mention it was illegal at Harry's age. You would think there was no way to get out for him, but Harry had found out that there was an emergency gateway leading straight into the Ministry from a hidden room in Hogwarts. That was what he was going to use to get to Sirius.

Harry whispered a spell, tapping his wand on the wall beside the portrait hole, and a door opened for him. He didn't want to wake up the Gryffindor portrait so he'd found a spell to make a temporary exit door. Once he was in the hall, Invisibility Cloak on and all, Harry made sure the door was gone and headed toward the Room of Requirement. To the left of that room was the hidden passageway. Hidden as in impossible to get in. Well, for everyone but Dumbledore… and the Marauders. Chuckling at their intelligence and sneakiness, Harry cast a few spells and sprayed the hidden door with sparkle dust he had gotten the day before. Finally, the door appeared and Harry stepped inside.

When he stepped out, he was in the phone booth that led to the Ministry and the door back in Hogwarts had vanished with no evidence that it had ever existed in the first place, let alone been opened recently.

"Welcome to—" The pleasant female voice started but was interrupted by Harry's urgent speaking.

"Harry Potter. I'm here to rescue my godfather from behind the Veil, I've just come from Hogwarts and would like to return before they send out search parties." He rushed the words out impatiently. A badge saying 'Harry Potter: UUHM (Urgent Useless Hero Mission)' popped out at him. He frowned at the second U but nevertheless pinned the badge on and descended into the ground floor of the Ministry.

**_I'm gonna stop here because it's late and I really can't write any more right now. Sorry it took me so long to update but I've been so caught up in other people's stories… You people are BRILLIANT I tell you. Well, the next chapter will be up ASAP and I mean that. It'll be finally focused on Sirius :D I'm sure that's good news. Well please review and I hope you liked it. I'm sorry that the dialog seems kinda forced and there's so little of it… My writing is still a work in progress and I can't say I'm so good but hey I try my best. Well *sighs hopefully * please review nicely!_**


	4. Choices

I updated so soon this time, I'm proud of myself :D LOL. Thanks to all the people who've reviewed my previous chapter. Here are the replies to everyone who reviewed my story since July 2, 2003: padfootlover (ch. 1), little Sirius things? What do you mean? * Confused* Sorry, I'm a little slow. And I would like that link if you could, thanks. Glad you like the story :D. Lil Lupin, aww thanks, I'm glad you like UUHM lol. Here ya go, Sirius is gonna be back! He will. If it doesn't seem so now, well it will next chappy… I've already said too much. Kandice, :D:D:D:D LOL I'm really happy you like it so much! :D:D:D LOL again; padfootlover (ch. 3) YAY you like it too! :D:D it will work, sooner or later, don't worry. And yeah, lol, that's basically what I was gonna do :D. Padfoot, did you read chapter 3 too? Thanks for liking it; I hope you enjoy this one too. bluefairexoxo, Harry will succeed and hey that's a good idea. *laughs evilly * a la Mr. Burns: EXCELLENT. LOL thanks for that. We'll see, it's quite possible… Gabriela, thank you *beams * hope you like this too. Kaitlyn, AKA siriuslover3, thank you so so so much! I think this A/N is too long cause I got so many lovely reviews all in one day *blushes *. I sent you instructions on how to make a story… I hope they help and I think I was a little too detailed but oh well. You're so nice, I think after getting your review was when I started writing the next chapter so thanks for the inspiration. I hope you like this. Basically to everyone, I hope you aren't mad at me by the end of this story. Oh and to lildarkkitty, Jen, padfootlover, and siriuslover3, who've recently (I'm not sure exactly when but during the course of my HP era which by the way I assume will go on for a long long time) added me to their favourite authors list, thank you thank you thank you! I love all you guys! And well anyone who reviewed my story! It means a lot. Um once again, sorry this A/N is so long. Well, go on, read, and review nicely when you're done please. *holds breath * Here goes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What---" the wizard at the front desk of the Ministry started. "Uuhm, I see…" He was an old man, judging by his white long beard and hair that could almost match Dumbledore, rather short, but his eyes were young and adventurous, and kindness radiated from them. UUHM was pronounced like umm. "Wand." Harry handed over his wand and the man checked it over while talking. "So what's your mission, if I may ask."

Harry was in a hurry yet something about this man made him repeat his story. " Well, I'm Harry Potter," He said, and the man smiled at him, "I'm supposed to be in Hogwarts right now… However, last year my godfather had fallen through the Veil back in the Department of Mysteries and I had found a way to get him back. So now, I'm hoping to rescue him out of the Veil and well to return to school as soon as possible so they don't send out search parties for me…" He ended, trailing off a bit.

The wizard looked at him carefully, then smiled again. "The Veil is a dark and mysterious place, Mr. Potter. I must warn you that you are risking your life..." Harry looked at him with determined eyes and the man chuckled, "But you realize that, I see. I can only wish you the best of luck in retrieving your godfather."

"My godfather is Sirius Black. Since you're from the Ministry, I doubt you want me to get him back." Harry replied skeptically before realizing that he shouldn't have. But the man only chuckled again.

"Sirius Black? Tell him that Allen Krived sends his best wishes. Nice man, that Sirius Black. Tell me, Harry, is he innocent?"

"Yes, he was framed by one of his best friends…"

"Yes, yes, I never have believed old Sirius could do such a thing… Well, this wand seems fine, better hurry off now." Harry took his wand and smiled once more at Allen thankfully. "Oh one more thing, Harry." Allen bent down towards the boy, whispering so no one else could hear, and handed Harry what looked like some kind of magic compass. "Here, you might need this." Straightening up, he winked at Harry, who looked confused but Allen had already turned to the next person in line.

In a matter of about a minute, he was in the corridor that he had dreamed of so many times. Feeling as if every step took forever, Harry walked to the door, opening it and stepping into the spinning hall. As the doors started to spin, Harry looked at his Muggle watch. It was almost 5 AM now, to his surprise, and with panic rising in his stomach, he once again fully realized just how many doors there were from this hall. He would never be able to go through all those; it would take forever! Then he got an idea. Taking a closer look at the compass that Allen Krived had given him, he noticed it shining, and the arrow was still as if waiting for a command. Unsure, Harry whispered, "The Veil". The arrow spun around a few times and settled in its place, pointing at one of the doors. Harry mentally thanked Allen and opened the door.

Sure enough, it was the same room. The Veil was there, blowing lightly and calmly, voices coming from it in whispers and mutters. Focusing on the task ahead, Harry took out his supplies for the spell. He was well prepared for this. First, he sprinkled some glittery dust over the veil then he mumbled a few incantations, and finally he spread a liquid-like potion around the veil. Saying a final incantation, Harry sighed. Now all he had to do was---

"Valinfy!" He made a dramatic movement of his wand and suddenly felt himself plunged into darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius was walking around in the darkness pointlessly. Something bothered him. And usually, when something was bothering him for no reason, he would go to check if Harry was all right. So now he felt more stuck then ever. Wrapped up in his glum thoughts, Sirius didn't notice how he'd walked onto what seemed to be a gateway. Returning to reality, he looked around amazed.

The gateway led three ways. Behind him, one way went into endless darkness, where he'd just come from and in front, there were two roads, both glowing, to the left and right of him. At what was presumably the end of each of the roads, there stood a male person with black hair that seemed to never have been brushed in their lives. On the right, the person was a man his age with hazel eyes, a man he thought he would never see again in his life.

"Prongs…" Sirius whispered, feeling a sharp stab in his chest as he saw his best friend smile at him confidently.

"Hey Padfoot" James's voice was peaceful and quiet because of the distance between them, but traces of strong emotion could be heard when he used Sirius's nickname.

Sirius looked to his right and felt the pain sharpen. The boy on the end of that road looked just like his father, except younger and with brilliant green eyes. Looking closer, Sirius noticed that he looked very tired and depressed. He was much thinner than he was the last time Sirius had seen his godson, and there were bags under his eyes, but whether they were from crying or insomnia, it was impossible to tell. Sirius felt guilt climb into his stomach at the sight of the boy.

"Harry… Harry, I'm so sorry." He said, tears welling up in his eyes. Harry shook his head. "Why are you two here?" But Sirius already knew. Harry must have found the spell and came here to rescue him from the Veil. And now he was to choose whether he would join his best friend in heaven or return back to life with his godson.

"You know why we're here Padfoot." James said softly. "I missed you Sirius. Come up here… It's great, there is no pain, no hurt, just peace. Lily and me have been waiting for you for a while now." He smiled confidently.

Sirius's gaze wandered to Harry. The thought of having to compete over his godfather with his father devastated Harry. He was standing there, obviously unsure what to do, with a helpless look on his face… His eyes had a certain maturity in them that Sirius knew he himself had never had at that age, yet they also called out to him desperately. Harry was far from being confident and he couldn't seem to put two words together.

"Sirius…" He said quietly, his eyes welling up with fresh tears, his voice so helpless and desperate. "Sirius… Don't leave again. Please. You're—you're the closest thing I have to a father now and…"Harry broke off and looked at James who was staring at him with compassionate and apologetic eyes.

"Harry I'm sorry. But you have Remus, you have your friends and Moody, Dumbledore, everyone—" He was interrupted by Harry who was now speaking more confidently as anger took the best of him.

"They're great people, yes, but they're not you Sirius. I love you; you're my family… You're the first person who I have ever felt was a true parent to me since my father and mother…" Harry looked at James again, his eyes full of tears that were about to fall down his cheeks. "I can't lose you too. And Remus, he's devastated. We need you Sirius. Please…" He looked at his godfather with begging eyes. He had never expected this to be so hard, to bring so much emotion… He had never expected it possible that Sirius wouldn't return to their side yet now it was.

Sirius looked from his left to his right over and over again. He was expected to choose between his best friend and his godson but how could he ever do that? He knew his decision, yet he also knew he would leave a part of him here with the other person when he left. With a heavy heart, Sirius headed towards the light to the left of him…

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Hee hee hee… Cliffhanger. Oh, I'm so evil. Uh, before you start hating me, think about this: things aren't always as they seem… All right? *takes deep breath *. Well, please review. Be nice or I won't update and you'll never know… Nah, I couldn't do that even if you wanted me to. I love my Siri too much. Once more I must beg you to be rational before you come to any conclusion. Ok, ok, now please review.

Aaah I got more reviews!!! Ok, on June 3rd: Jen, I just realized that the thing separating the points of views doesn't show. Oops. I'm trying to fix that. And it isn't that useless. Trust me, I know, I wrote the story. LOL. Ice- :D the Ministry is stupid, they think they're the best and trying to save someone from the Veil is useless…

Ok, well *deep breath * review please.


	5. Out of the Veil

Hey, thanks everyone for reviewing. I was so afraid that you'd want to decapitate me after the last chapter lol *relieved sigh *. I'll post replies at the bottom of the story because I know you want to get to reading it (lol well or else you wouldn't be here now). I think you'll be pleased to know that I've decided that I've been dragging out saving Sirius for long enough. So this chapter, he'll be out of that Veil. The story's not going to end there though. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter. It will contain a fight scene, which I'm not so good at because I've never done those before so please be patient with my amateur-ness. Ok, well read and please review.

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Sirius looked at James, who was standing at the end of the left road. His best friend seemed to understand everything from Sirius's look, so he smiled sadly and met Sirius halfway through the shining road.

"I'm sorry Prongs."

"It's all right Padfoot I understand. It's best this way." They hugged. "Take care of him, all right? We'll wait for you, but take your time."

"Thanks James." Sirius's voice was dripping with emotion.

"If you need anything… I know I'm dead and all but you can count on me for help, Sirius. You know that. Tell Harry I love him for me, will you?" James's voice was breaking too.

"Hey…" Sirius said softly, "I thought you said there was no pain up there." He smiled at James.

"No… But there's love." James said sadly and smiled. "Just as well…"

"Bye James."

"Bye Sirius."

And with one last hug between the two best friends, Sirius began walking back towards the gateway.

Sirius, of course, realized what he was leaving behind. Behind him was his best friend; with James he always felt safe, needed, peaceful, happy… perfectly content. With Harry, he often felt useless… However Sirius wasn't one to dwell on the past. As far as he was concerned, the future could be changed and that was all that mattered. And he was done letting people push him around. Besides, Harry relied on him, he looked up to him as a father, and Sirius had come to think of Harry as his own son. And for a first time in a long while, just a few minutes ago looking at Harry's face, Sirius had realized that he really is needed back. That someone out there misses him. And that gave him new hope, new strength to fight. Never in his life would he abandon Harry again.

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Harry watched numbly as Sirius walked away, towards James. 'This can't be happening. He can't leave now.' He thought, panicking, 'I've come all the way here… I need him there.' He simply refused to believe that Sirius was leaving. He wasn't in denial, he wasn't hoping for a miracle, he just refused to believe it, as if knowing for a fact it wasn't true. He watched his godfather hug his father and talk for just a few minutes about something that obviously brought a lot of sadness to them. And when Harry saw Sirius turn back and walk towards him, he blinked. Then blinked again. Then he pinched his hand, wincing in pain. But Sirius was still walking towards him, smiling and it wasn't a dream.

It took Harry a while to get over the shock and he felt himself glowing with happiness. He ran towards Sirius and hugged him so tightly that his godfather could barely breathe.

"Harry, Harry, whoa, it's ok." Sirius laughed but hugged him back.

"Sirius!" Harry couldn't wipe the huge grin off his face. Then he hit his godfather on his shoulder.

"Ow!" Sirius cried out in protest.

"How dare you disappear in here? What if no one ever came to get you? Don't you think about other people? Everyone was so devastated; you should have seen them! Dumbledore's been blaming himself and I'm obviously blaming myself and---"

"Hey… slow down. Do you think I got myself stuck in here on purpose?" Sirius asked in amazement. "It was never your fault; or Dumbledore's. I was tired of being locked up; no one forced me to come here. And then all I did was get locked up again. Smart, eh?"

Harry shook his head. "Siri---"

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the one lecturing YOU. Isn't it school time right now? Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts? How did you get here anyway?"

"Well yes, I should be in school but my first class isn't until…" He checked his Muggle watch, "two hours from now. And since this spell could only be performed on a specific night once or twice a year, I thought I'd risk missing a few hours of classes. How I got here, remember that entrance from Hogwarts to the Ministry? It's on the Map, and well it's proven very useful." Sirius smiled. "Oh, this Allen Krived told me to say hi to you by the way. He let me in… is he a friend of yours?"

"Allen? I've known him since forever. He's like an uncle to me. He works here?" Harry nodded. "No wonder he let you in. This section is supposed to be restricted… Well let's go, I don't think I can stand this place much longer."

As they walked towards the warm, shining light, Sirius looked back at James who was waving sadly. "Harry… Your Dad told me to tell you that he loves you." Sirius said. Harry turned around, too and waved to his Dad.

"I know. I love him too…" His eyes became watery and Sirius could bet that he saw tears running from James's eyes as they stepped into the light.

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This is where you'd think everything was happily ever after. Sadly, Harry Potter's life was never predictable. Well, unless you predict that the boy can never have more than two minutes of happiness.

Just as Sirius and Harry stepped out of the Veil, they found themselves surrounded by Death Eaters, lead by Bellatrix.

"Aww look who's back." She cooed at her cousin. "Well that won't last long. Get them guys." And suddenly, Death Eaters from every direction spilled onto the two.

Sirius and Harry were taken by surprise but were forced to recover quickly. Curses were shot at them from various directions and it took them another moment to realize that they were broken when they reached close to Sirius and Harry. The Death Eaters had realized this too and soon stopped in confusion.

"You idiots! Spells aren't effective in the radius of the Veil anymore…" Apparently the Ministry had made up some other restriction since Sirius's _disappearance_.

"Really… well that's interesting." Sirius said in an amused tone, "Hmm now you can't harm us."

"Siri, honey, you're not going to stay in there for too long." Bellatrix said, her voice mockingly sweet. "But wait, actually, you're used to being locked up so maybe this is a problem after all." She pretended to think (it didn't look like she's had enough practice REALLY doing that), "Nah."

Right then, Sirius stepped out from the supposed radius around the Veil, Harry following beside him. "Bring it on." **_(A/N yes, that sounds very lame but hey… Now comes the fighting scene *cringe * hope it doesn't suck too much.)_**

Once more, many spells were shot in their direction. But Harry and Sirius were one step ahead of them. Both had whispered '_Ultra-Protego'_ on themselves after stepping out of the Veil's shield and were now protected by a strong, but temporary shield. _'Crucio'_ someone yelled and in a few seconds the same person gasped and yelled, twitching on the floor as his own curse reflected onto him. In a matter of a few minutes, the not-so-smart Death Eaters were laying around the floor, their own horrible curses reflected back to them but most were still fighting, trying to destroy the shields. The almost visible magic barrier trembled as counter spells were used on it and it wouldn't be long until it would be useless.

'_Petrificus Totalus!' _Harry yelled at a Death Eater who was casting another counter spell on his shield. Too late, he realized that casting the spell had made his own shield disappear. With no time to think, Harry started shouting various spells at the wizards and witches around him, hoping that with some miracle he wouldn't get hit with one. See, the biggest problem with Ultra Shield spells is that one can be performed only once in a while.

Sirius shrugged off his shield with Harry too. He wouldn't stay there protected when Harry was fighting for his life. But they had no chance of winning, he knew. They would need a miracle to get out of this. With a few of their enemies down by their own spells and some by Harry and Sirius's, there were still about ten left against the two of them.

"Hey Siri!" Her voice sounded cheery as Bellatrix turned to Sirius. "Leave this one alone, I can deal with him." She ordered the others. "Back so soon are ya?" Sirius glared at her with a look full of loathing. The Death Eaters had backed off him but they were still on Harry and he kept a close look on them, casting a spell once in a while. "Well you know, Master thinks you and the boy there are a problem to us." Sirius shot another look in her direction; he was listening but paying more attention to protecting Harry. "I don't question his judgement… No wait, I do. It's kind of funny… How can YOU be a danger to the strongest Dark Lord ever? All you ever do is sit locked up somewhere anyway."

"You know what else is funny? He gets you to call him Master." Sirius chuckled and said in amusement, "You're like his little lap dog. No, dogs are cute… and they have brains… and hearts. You're like… his rat. Yeah that fits exactly." He smiled at her suddenly angry expression.

"Let's get this over with. _Crucio!_" She yelled, pointing her wand at Sirius. It happened in a blur; Sirius conjured a quick Shield spell and the Unforgivable reflected on Lestrange who stared at him with her eyes wide open before falling over and struggling in pain. And on a double take, Sirius realized that she never fell on the ground. No, instead she fell back into the curtains of the Veil, to be forever stuck in nothing. She wouldn't be rescued; she COULDN'T be rescued. Only pure, as they say 'good' souls have a chance of being released. Bellatrix was going to be left suffering forever. He felt sorry for her… for all of a second. Yes, yes that's so much, but she was his cousin and he was entitled to at least a second of mourning.

Harry, meanwhile, was still struggling with the leftover Death Eaters. It was about eight to one now and he wasn't so confident anymore. A few spells had managed to hit him, nothing lethal thank God, but he was now slower and his vision was slightly blurred; his glasses had fell off somewhere and there were various cuts across his body from many spells directed at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sirius and Bellatrix beginning to fight but his attention was diverted back to the Death Eaters. He was endlessly saying _Protego_ but his Shield spells seemed to be less and less effective. Now, they merely faded the spell when it got to Harry, and took their time doing that, too, so he was starting to feel side effects from the attempted spells.

Vaguely, Harry heard someone yell '_Ilsonu!_' and after another weak attempt to Shield himself, the spell reached him in its almost full strength. Harry's eyelids were getting heavy and he found it difficult to stand without swaying. He was falling asleep.

'No, no I can't sleep.' Harry thought to himself, panicking. 'I have to fight, they'll kill me.' Yet he was finding it harder and harder to resist the spell. Then a thought rushed through his head, 'They'll kill Sirius!' and Harry was suddenly energized. The thought of losing his godfather again brought him strength he'd never had before.

Harry looked around at his enemies, yet they were distracted by something. Following their center of attention just in time, Harry saw Bellatrix yell the Cruciatus curse at Sirius but he was fast and the curse rebounded on Sirius's cousin. In shock, Bellatrix fell over, and she would have been screaming from pain had she not disappeared under the veil, like Sirius had only a few months ago.

Harry was stunned; happy from this sudden revenge and horrified at the whole situation at the same time. The Death Eaters were hesitant for a moment too before they, as one, turned back to Harry. By now, Sirius had appeared by his godson's side. They were still outnumbered by many and both knew there was no way they would win this alone. The Death Eaters knew this too, and they seemed to take pleasure in their victims' hopeless situation, when suddenly…

Wizards and witches came bursting out of the many entrances to the room. They surrounded the Death Eaters and had their wands ready to fire. Surprised, Voldemort's followers turned their attention from Harry and Sirius for a moment and in that moment, the two went as far away from them as possible. The crowd that had emerged into the room disarmed them and one by one, the Death Eaters were dragged out of the room to be imprisoned.

Harry and Sirius were standing in the back of the room, watching the proceedings when Harry noticed Allen wink at them from the other side of the room. He smiled gratefully and Sirius waved at the man.

See, that's another thing you can always predict in Harry's life. He's always in trouble but there are always people who help him out of it just when everything seems hopeless. Yeah, sometimes it feels pretty good to be Harry Potter.

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**_First and foremost, review replies: Lil Lupin, hee hee well the answer to that was up there and hey you reviewed it almost right after I actually posted the chapter aww thanks; Ice, :) :) nope things are not as they seem; Ali, boogie monster? Lol aah scary! * Grateful that I updated* Thanks for the enthusiasm, it's really encouraging; Padfoot, oh my God, thank you so much for that! Kandice, lol you seem hyper. Party in the Bat Cave with no shoes… hmm sounds kinda fun! Lol; sapphireskies, yes it is pretty off limits but Allen is a good friend of Sirius's and, like every one of Sirius's friends, has a certain disregard for the rules. :) Thanks for liking my story! A.J. sorry, I hope this chapter is more satisfying; Kaitlyn, np for the email, your stories are really good, and thanks for that review; _****_^.^, aww what a cute name lol, and aah I get those two mixed up ALL THE TIME!! It's annoying. Sorry for any confusion about Harry and James's eye _****_colours_****_. Nicole, mine is in no way better than yours but thank you!! Ooh and thanks for adding me to your _****_favourites_****_ list._**

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**_Special thank you to bluefairexoxo, who, back in the chapter 3 reviews, suggested the idea of Bellatrix ending up in the Veil. So thanks for that idea, as you can see, I used it here._**

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**_All in all, thanks to everyone for reading the story, reviewing it and liking it. I love you guys! *Tear * and I hope you liked this chapter too, despite the pretty crappy fight scene and all. I'm going to be writing about the others' reaction to Sirius's return and the whole Voldemort prophecy thing. Well *takes breath * please review._**


	6. Remus's Reaction

Sometimes, my male characters (Sirius, Harry and James) seem so emotional that it might sound kind of gay for some people, but hey, THEY'RE NOT. They say I love you or something a lot and you know I mean like family, right? Ok good. No offense to anyone who doesn't but I despise slash and you will never see me write any of it. No offense. Well I just wanted to make this clear, though none of you have thought that they are so far, just in case. I'm a mushy type of person so that's why. Anyway, on to the story. From now on, I'm posting review replies at the bottom, but I want to thank everyone who reviewed in advance. I love you guys!!

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"Hey Allen, how've you been?" Sirius walked up to his older friend, hugging him.

"Great. You?" The man replied cheerfully.

"I've been… locked up, mostly." Sirius said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Hey look, I think there's something we can do. I mean, to clear your name and all." Allen paused. "Can we go talk about this somewhere else? I don't think it's very safe here."

They left the room, went through the spinning hall using the magic compass again. The three walked slowly, chatting about everyday things in order to not attract any attention. After all, Harry Potter, who was just Harry Potter, with Sirius Black who was considered a mass murderer who fled Azkaban, with a Ministry of Magic worker, Allen Krived. That's not a usual combination of people and the less attention they were paid, the better. Finally, they came to the Ministry ground floor and Allen led Harry and Sirius to a room further away.

"This is an emergency Floo portal. No one monitors it so it's safer. Are we going to Grimmauld?" Allen asked casually.

"You know--?" Harry began.

"Not here, Harry. Yes, Allen, let's go." Sirius nodded at his friend.

They went through the fireplace, each quietly calling out the street name. See, this portal went by streets that contained Floo network fireplaces, not the actual homes. After arriving, they came inside number 12, locked the doors, and went into Sirius's room. No one was around yet. Harry figured they weren't ready yet.

"You were saying…" Sirius started.

"Yeah, my job in the Ministry isn't really important but I know quite a few guys whose jobs are. Remember Kiara? She's in the Department of Mysteries. So are Kelan, Dymphina, Fawzi and Sebastiana."

"Wow, really?" He chuckled, amused. "Kiara? I remember her all right." He smiled, seemingly at a memory of the girl. "Well anyway can they really help us?"

"Yeah, they're pretty influential in the Ministry. There're a few people I've met recently that might help too. Look, I know most of the Ministry are a bunch of ignorant idiots who won't believe anything unless it's handed to them on a silver platter right under their nose. But you know these people, I know these people, they're exceptions. And if we can convince them of the truth, you have a chance of claiming innocence."

"How do you know what the truth is?" Sirius asked.

"Oh. Well I knew you were innocent. And I'd found out that Peter was the secret keeper and then well everything just kind of flowed together." Allen explained.

"Um hey, I'm sorry, but how are we going to get the Ministry to change their mind about Sirius before they put him in Azkaban? As soon as they see you there, they'd arrest you…" Harry said, turning to Sirius.

"Yeah, that's where I come in." Allen said. "They send me on rescue missions once in a while, by the way, that's how I got to help you guys down in the veil room, and well if anyone notices who Sirius is, I'd just cover it up with that."

"Great. When can we do this then?"

They went on planning on how to clear Sirius's name, but, getting tired of it, Sirius decided to see who was in the house and see them instead, with Harry and Allen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Remus Lupin was sitting alone in his room in 12 Grimmauld Place. There weren't many people around here anymore, they claimed to be busy but really, they were just intimidated. They avoided this place since Sirius---… Disappeared. Remus had told himself countless times to stop hoping for a miracle but his brain wouldn't comprehend that Sirius was dead. That damned veil. It was just a black curtain covering an old arch. How could falling into it make you disappear? Something about the Veil was so familiar to Remus but he couldn't quite remember what it was. And now there he was, sitting alone yet again in this place that brought so many memories back, he just wanted to start crying right there. He should leave the place, he knew he should but he couldn't. Something drew him to it and he stayed there day after day, leaving once in a while but always coming back, somewhere deep down hoping he'd be met by his dark-haired, adventurous best friend who would be bored out of his mind, but safe and alive. But that never happened.

A noise came from downstairs, and Remus heard quiet voices. For a second, he thought he heard Sirius's laugh but he shrugged it off and turned over in his bed, thinking he needed some sleep.

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"Hey guys look what I found!" Sirius's voice yelled from seemingly behind the wall. The Marauders, all four, were in some bookstore in Diagon Alley, buying books for their new, sixth, year. Sirius came out from a small opening in the bookshelves that they didn't notice before. He was holding a large book titled Hidden Places. They had no particular need in the book, or so they thought, but the four flipped through it. It didn't look that big since it was magical but it had an endless amount of pages, it seemed. Randomly, they turned to a page about the Veil.

_"Did I see that place before?" Remus wondered. He had gotten a déjà vu from the picture and suddenly vividly saw Sirius falling through it, stunned. Blinking, Remus shrugged it off as a dream. "So what is it?"_

_"Some gateway to death." Sirius sounded bored. "It says that if someone living falls in there, they have to wait in nothing. And there're rescue instructions on page 990513. You wanna get this?"_

_"Well… Hey wait, where'd you get it from?" James spoke up._

_"That section right over—" Sirius was pointing to a part of the store where the entrance to the dark section was, but it wasn't there anymore. "Umm…"_

_"I think it's under one of those Requirement spells." James commented._

_"But what do we need this for?" Sirius asked, puzzled._

_"Maybe not now, but we might in the future or something." Remus said. "And it'd have something to do with that Veil, or else it wouldn't have opened to that page."_

_"But we just opened it randomly…" Peter said, not wanting anything to do with the freaky looking veil._

_"Nothing ever happens randomly in our world…" Sirius said thoughtfully. "Moony, you're right. Let's just buy this. We might need it." They headed towards the counter since everyone had all their books._

_"Do you have another copy of this book?" Remus asked the manager since this one was all torn. The man looked at him, then the book, then at the hidden section of the store in puzzlement._

_"No… this is the only copy ever produced. It must be really important for one of you to get it." He said, looking over the four. They paid for their books and left the shop._

_"Who wants to keep the book?" Sirius asked. Everyone seemed a bit freaked out that the book chose them like that. "Wormtail, you wanna?"_

_"Umm o-okay…" Peter said, not very confidently._

_"Wonder what that Veil thing has to do with us." James wondered._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~__

And with that, Remus woke up. Now he knew what was so familiar about that veil, and he was beyond confused. His dream was really a flashback to when the Marauders had went to Diagon Alley before the beginning of their sixth year. It was exactly the same, except when it had happened in real life, Remus didn't get a déjà vu of the veil. They never had looked through the book, they'd forgotten all about it. Before Remus could take this in, his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Still, he didn't bother to get up but the person on the other side opened the door and stepped in. He thought it'd be Tonks or maybe Alastor Moody, or possibly Dumbledore with some urgent news, but he never expected the three people that were standing there to come.

Remus Lupin blinked rapidly, pinched his arm, and shook his head a few times but the people didn't go away. There, staring at him in amusement (he must have been a funny sight, reacting like he did), were Harry, Sirius and Allen.

"I'm dreaming. This can't—You're de—" Remus mumbled in barely coherent sentences, staring wide-eyed at his visitors.

"Moony, you know perfectly well that I'm not dead, now get up and at least pretend you're happy to see an old friend." Sirius lectured the stunned Remus, somehow succeeding in keeping his face fully serious. However, that ended right away when he burst out laughing at the face Remus made when Sirius talked.

"I—how? —Uhh… Ha—Si—Al—" The ex professor was trying to start talking to one of them but couldn't make up his mind as to which one. By now, all three were laughing and Remus was still staring at them. "Sirius!" Remus had finally gained more or less consciousness of the fact that Sirius was, indeed, here in front of him. And the first thing he did after this realization was pulling his best friend into a tight, bone-breaking hug.

"Rem—Remus, let go, this hurts!" Sirius said, between laughing; he really he didn't care that it hurt. Besides, Remus didn't let go anyway.

Finally, Lupin let go of Sirius and took notice of the other two. Seeing Harry wasn't unusual for him, so he greeted Allen first.

"Hey, Allen. What're you doing here?" He asked after giving him a hug too.

And they launched into the whole story of their "UUHM" as the Ministry had called it. But then again, the Ministry is wrong about a LOT of things if you haven't noticed.

"Well that's—hey wait, Harry, shouldn't you be at school by now? Classes have already started… people are going to start looking for you." Remus noted after they had finished catching up on each other's lives.

"I guess we're paying a visit to Dumbledore then." Sirius said, his eyes shining, happy for the opportunity.

"I have to go, the Ministry is going to wonder about my disappearance if I don't show up soon too, but good luck." They said goodbye to Allen, and he left, while Harry, Remus and Sirius headed off to Hogwarts.

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Review replies: Lil Lupin, hmm now you're always the first person to review when I update, :), and well you'll see if they noticed next chapter, and there's your first reaction, hope you liked it. Julie, aww it's my great pleasure to write this, thank you for reading it and liking it! Nicole, thank you so much, and hey, your review made me incorporate Allen more into this story! Ice, hee hee, I think Bellabitch does suit her much more… Glad to provide more chapters, hope you enjoy this one. Kandice, nah that wasn't so late, thanks for reviewing. You seem to be constantly hyper; I wish I were like that again. My mom took away my chocolate :'( lol. BuffyHalliwell, I know, I was re-reading the first book, and when Hagrid said that he borrowed the bike from 'young Sirius Black', I stared at that sentence for like 15 minutes before my friend asked me what was wrong because I was almost crying. Thank God she understands and didn't think I was crazy lol. And I'm glad you liked the story so far, I'm going to read your story too, but I've been busy so I haven't yet, and yes, I like Buffy! But I don't really read BTVS fanfics, sorry. I might get around to it sometime, but I doubt it. bluefairexoxo, yep that's me, happy ending lady, nothing but happy endings here… most of the time. But anyway it isn't done yet, and it seems like it won't be for a while. Mornel, thank you so much. PS, thank you for WRITING your story; I love it! thelionqueen, aww thank you for that, I'm glad you think it's so good. He is so cool! Padfoot's Bone, great, I hope you liked the first reaction. :) Oh and thanks to Sailor Mini Venus for adding me to her favourite authors list! I feel so flattered now! I love all you guys so much!

**_That's it for this chapter. I'm thinking of things to incorporate into the story, help me out with this, ok? I'm not going to describe how everyone reacts to Sirius's comeback, so tell me who you want and I'll pick out a few people that you, my reviewers, want to see there. Then, Voldemort is going to be all revengeful and, well, mad, so there's going to be lots of evil and fighting some time soon, along with, as I said, the fulfillment of the prophecy, you know the one. I've got this whole thing that's supposed to be a big surprise, so shh, the first clue about it is in that dream. And then, romance. I love writing romance, so that's definitely going to happen. And definitely with Sirius, but who else do you want to see get all coupley? (NO SLASH!!) And, of course, as mentioned in this chapter, Sirius is going to try to clear his name with the help of some of his old friends. Well, please review this chappy and tell me what you think about those plans. Did I do ok? Thanks you guys, I hope you liked it._**


	7. Return to Hogwarts

So this is Dumbledore and some other people at Hogwarts. I'm doing a maximum of two chapters of reactions, including this one. It's also a pretty long chapter, focusing on too much details and too much people because it's only half a day and it takes 7 pages. Hope I didn't overdo it too much. Please R&R.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione woke up early that day. It was their fourth day at Hogwarts in the new year but the first days went by too fast. The usually organized Hogwarts program was very messed up and confusing this week. The older students seemed to only have classes for the sole purpose of filling up the time; they weren't really doing anything in them. Supposedly, they were to start learning properly next week, once the younger students got more or less used to the surroundings and they didn't need as much attention; that was the official excuse anyway. Most of the teachers gave them meaningless work to do in class that nobody even checked and Ron, Hermione and Harry usually just talked through the classes. Well, Ron and Hermione did anyway. Harry spoke once in a while but most of the time he was actually doing to work or just sitting there, thinking about something. If anyone mentioned that strange mirror, Sirius, Voldemort, or something relative, he changed the subject, but at least then he joined into the conversation for a while.

Things had, in fact, been so disorganized these days that the students didn't even know who was this year's DADA teacher. First week's schedules were temporary timetables which were to be changed next week and DADA wasn't one of the classes this week, which was strange. Instead, it seemed, they had many extra Potion lessons, much to everyone's, except the Slytherins, dismay. Snape had, of course, been horrible to them. He was also the only teacher who gave assignments that counted this week. Harry was working harder than ever, perhaps because it took his mind off of other things and his potions were every bit as good as Hermione. This apparently upset Snape and he always found ways to ruin everything. Yesterday, Harry made a perfect Waking Potion and Snape said it was too strong. So Harry, perfectly calm, had walked up to the professor and spilled the potion onto him. It cost Gryffindor 50 points, but nobody minded since Snape was running around as if on a caffeine rush the whole day. No one bothered to find an antidote, or something to help him.

Hermione sighed and got up, dressed and went down to the common room. They had Care of Magical Creatures, then Divination, and Magical Creatures again before lunch. It was the first time they ever two Magical Creatures classes in the same day… But the trio wasn't complaining; they didn't mind spending extra time in Hagrid's class. After lunch, though, they were in hell. They had _triple_ Potions.

Hermione was looking through the Potions book for the fifth time when Ron came in the common room.

"Good morning Ron." Hermione greeted him without looking up.

"Hey Hermy—I mean Hermione." Since Grawp, the two guys had gotten quite fond of calling Hermione, Hermy, but she hadn't warmed up to the name yet.

"Wait… Where's Harry?" She asked suddenly, looking up. He, of course, wasn't there.

"What, d'you mean… he's not down here?" Ron asked, slightly alarmed.

"No…"

"Well he wasn't up in the dormitories… I figured he'd woken up and come down here."

"Oh no, what do we do?" Hermione asked in a panicked tone.

Right then, though, people started filling into the common room grumpily.

"Make up an excuse if anyone asks. He'll probably show up by breakfast." Ron whispered.

But he didn't. 

It was time to get to Hagrid's class and Harry still had not come back. In the rush of the morning, no one had really noticed but they were bound to during class and Hermione and Ron were getting really worried.

"D'you think something happened?" Ron asked Hermione nervously while the two were rushing to Care of Magical Creatures. They needed to ask Hagrid if he knew anything before the rest showed up.

"I don't kno— Hagrid!" The half-giant met them beside his hut where he was setting up for the class. They were doing review work.

"What are yeh doin' here so early?" Hagrid asked surprised. Hermione and Ron quickly told Hagrid about Harry's disappearance. "Third nigh' from the beginning of the year ain't it?"

Hermione and Ron were taken aback at the question, but Hermione answered slowly, "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

To their surprise, he smiled. "Gone off, he had. Well, don' yeh worry, he'll be back, he will." Humming, Hagrid turned back to finish setting everything up, as if that had solved everything. Hermione and Ron exchanged looks.

"But, Hagrid, how do you know he'll come back?" Ron tried again. "Something could've happened to him. Someone…"

"He's fine, he isn' in trouble." Hagrid replied, almost exasperated. "He'll be back soon, just yeh wait." Though they were still confused, the two helped Hagrid until the rest of the class showed up.

During the break they were given after the first class, Hermione and Ron tried to question Hagrid again.

"Look, I'm tellin' yeh, he's all right. I can' explain now, he'll tell yeh when he comes back. Jus' wait a bit." They didn't have to wait long at all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and a large fluffy black dog that went by the name of Snuffles for the time being walked up the Hogwarts corridors and stopped in front of the gargoyles guarding Dumbledore's office.

"Marauder's Map" Remus said, smiling. Dumbledore had told the members of the Order the password in case anything urgent came up and they needed to get into his office. They were let inside. Snuffles looked up curiously, looking as close as a dog can get to laughing and looking proud at the same time. Remus went through the door first, closely followed by Harry, surprising Dumbledore.

"Hello, Remus, Harry, what brings you-" Dumbledore trailed off when he saw Sirius, still in his dog form, run in, barking happily. He turned to Albus Dumbledore, who was staring at him, transfixed.

"Love the new password. Keep the Marauders' Pride alive, that's what I say." Sirius smirked after quickly transforming back to his human form.

"Sirius? How-" Dumbledore began.

"You mean, you don't know?" Sirius asked, amused. "Albus, I thought you were all-knowing" He looked at the Headmaster, talking in a mockingly accusatory and amused tone. 

"I do not…I am unable to understand how…" Dumbledore seemed in shock from the image in front of him. 

"Great, now we have to explain this again." Sirius sighed, and with the help of Remus and Harry, he explained everything to Dumbledore, who was listening intently. Sirius had barely finished when he was silenced by a constricting hug from his former headmaster. He laughed and embraced him back.

"Sirius," Dumbledore said quietly, "I believe I owe you an apology." His voice wavered a bit, which was unusual for the almost-constantly calm man. "I should not have kept you locked up all that time…and I should have told Harry everything sooner…can you possibly forgive me?" Dumbledore looked at Sirius, who wasn't showing any signs of holding a grudge.

"I have never blamed you, Albus. Though, I admit, I hated being stuck in that house… you won't make me stay there again will you?" Sirius asked cautiously. He was in a generous mood, having spent the whole way here convincing Harry and Remus that he was all right and nothing was their fault.

"Of course not," Dumbledore said immediately, apparently understanding. "I can arrange you to stay at Hogwarts as_ Snuffles_, if you are extremely careful. Things will be much easier once we clear your name." He said the last sentence so casually that it sounded like a statement, as if there was no doubt it wasn't going to happen.

"Harry, would you mind?" Sirius began asking but he needn't finish.

"_Mind??"_ Harry looked at him like he was out of his mind. "I'd _love_ for you to stay here! Are you kidding? Thank you, Professor Dumbledore." He turned to the Headmaster.

" You're welcome, Harry." Dumbledore smiled. " Ah, well, I realize I should penalize you… Leaving the school grounds without permission is a punishable offense." He looked at Harry strictly but could not hide his smile. "However, under the circumstances, I think I'll award Gryffindor 50 points instead. You showed the key points of a true Gryffindor: bravery, selflessness, conviction, resourcefulness… I am extremely impressed." He smiled warmly at Harry, who was beaming more than before, though that had not seemed possible earlier. "Now, there is something I have to talk to all three of you about after you get acquainted with the school grounds again. Sirius and Harry, would you please come to my office during lunch? Remus, could you please stay now?"

"Of course, Professor," Remus said. "I'll see you two later, all right? Say 'Hello' to Hermione and Ron for me, would you?" he told Harry warmly, who nodded, still smiling.

"Now, Harry, Snuffles may accompany you to your classes today. But please do be careful. We cannot risk anyone recognizing you yet," Dumbledore said to Harry, and the last part to Sirius.

"Thank you, Headmaster." Sirius grinned. "I'll behave." He added but didn't sound like he really meant it.

"Very well." Dumbledore was smiling again. "Now you may leave. Harry, your class should be finishing Divination now." Harry and Sirius headed towards the door, Sirius about to transform, when they heard a voice from the wall.

"Dumbledore, sir, there was no one—" The voice was coming from one of the portraits and broke off when the man inside saw the visitors. Phineas Nigellus's mouth fell open. Then he blinked and closed it. And it fell open again. Open. Blink. Closed. This repeated quite a few times before the former headmaster could get out coherent words. "Sirius, is that you?" Sirius nodded, staring at his great-great-grandfather with interest. By now, Phineas regained his self-control. "You stupid, selfish git. Don't you know how much pain you caused everyone? The boy there," he pointed to Harry, "he turned the place upside down last time he was here. And Dumbledore… and everyone else… you… you…" He sounded just like one would when lecturing a misbehaving child.

"Hey, I didn't die on purpose you know! Well not _die_ per se, but I didn't disappear in that damned Veil for months out of my own accord." Sirius defended himself.

"Well, as long as you're back. Tell Trixie to play nice, we can't have the last of the Blacks die before he makes us some descendants now, can we?" Sirius looked embarrassed and amused at the same time.

"_Trixie_'s gone, Phineas." Sirius replied.

"Oh ok then." He didn't seem to care much. "Well just get us some descendants then." Sirius looked embarrassed again, so he just transformed into the dog, barking what's interpreted as a 'Goodbye' to Remus, Dumbledore and Phineas.

Finally, the two left into the corridor and Dumbledore turned back to the remaining Marauder. "So, Remus, I need a few minutes, if you would care to sit down."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Today in Divination, Professor Trelawney decided to review the Grim.

"So, the distinctive features of a Grim is that it looks like a large dog, black and furry and…" She stopped summarizing the lesson abruptly in mid-sentence and shrieked, covering her mouth with her hand and going pale. She was staring at the two figures in the door that had just opened. Naturally, students turned around to see what happened; some shrieked like Trelawney had; some stared; Hermione and Ron, however, smiled, looking at each other in relief and surprise and waved to the newcomers. Of course, Harry and Sirius had just entered the classroom.

"Is that—" Hermione mouthed and Harry nodded his head triumphantly. Snuffles noticed them and ran up to them, licking their welcoming hands and wagging his tail energetically.

"Professor Trelawney, Dumbledore had allowed me to bring Snuffles to class for the time being." Harry said loudly to the teacher who was still pale as a ghost.

"Snuffles?"

"Si—I mean my dog. He's not a Grim or anything" Harry seemed to just have noticed that everyone was staring at the dog in horror and he chuckled slightly.

"Of course, of course." She said hurriedly. "Now…" And then the bell rang, dismissing the class. "Um, no homework!" With that, the teacher sat down at her desk, looking horrified. The students, learning the dog wasn't an omen of death, gathered up to pet him as they were walking back to Magical Creatures. He did tricks for them and walked around everyone, wagging his tail energetically.

"He sure likes being the center of attention." Harry smirked.

"Harry… how did—" Hermione started to ask.

"Oh please not again. Ok, to make it short, I saw this stuff about people behind the Veil in a book, and there was a way to provide them with a choice, to either go to heaven, or back here. People who are meant to go to hell aren't given an option in the first place. I went at night and Sirius chose to come up here; Bellatrix and some Death Eaters tried to kill us;" Hermione and Ron gasped but Harry paid no attention to it, "Sirius sent Bellatrix into the Veil; then we met this guy Allen who works there and worked out a plan to get Sirius's name cleared and then we went to see Remus and tell him; then we came to Dumbledore and here." He said all this very quickly, in one breath. "There."

"How come you didn't tell us anything before?" Ron asked accusingly.

"I didn't want to disturb you guys. Besides, there was no point anyway so it doesn't matter. It was more of a one-person thing. I had to go or nobody.

The trio went back down to Hagrid's hut beaming and was followed closely by the dog and his admirers (he had quite a lot). The Slytherins, who accompanied them for this class, were already there and Hagrid was waiting with them when they saw the class approach. Sirius broke away from the crowd and ran to the friendly half-giant right away. Hagrid, of course, recognized him right away and petted him vigorously for a while, and Sirius wagged his tail just as actively. Their day got even better when the trio saw Draco Malfoy's astonished face.

"But… how did you… what…" Draco mumbled, watching the dog bask in the attention he was getting. "You can't bring that… that filthy _thing_ to class!" Unfortunately, he regained the ability to speak again.

"Funny, then how come you're allowed?" Harry retorted.

Malfoy, with Crabbe and Goyle behind him, moved in on Harry but Snuffles suddenly appeared in front of him, growling and baring his teeth. With the size of him and the dangerously low growling, the three decided to back off.

The rest of the class, everyone from Gryffindor marveled over the dog. Some Slytherins tried to get in too but Malfoy gave them such a look that they didn't dare, so everyone from Slytherin was standing aside and watching. Hagrid, Hermione, Harry and Ron were standing aside and talking about what happened this day.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**_Lil Lupin, thanks and yeah, you were the first person. Again. I posted the chapter at night so that's probably why it seemed like the next day… I posted it at like 10 or something I think. Kaitlyn thanks. Padfoot's Bone, yeah it is time, and aah, shh don't say anything about that. I said, the first clue is in the dream but you weren't really supposed to notice it! Ok, I've said too much. You'll find out if you keep reading the story, I think it'll be in the next maybe 3 or so chapters. :). Kandice, lol well she not so much took it away as bought me too little and I finished it in one day and she wouldn't buy more. Which is like the same thing lol. Thanks, and I'll try to get him out of prison for you, sure. Silver, yeah, that's JKR's powers, to make us love fictional characters! (and then she kills them off *scowl *) Ice, yeah… funny… *shifty eyes *. Evil-fluffy-twins… err review? Thanks, I guess… if I understand you right. BuffyHalliwell, updated, updated, updated! : D and yeah I do like your story, please update it. Sarah, thank you so much! Yeah, it's weird… Dumbledore DOESN'T know everything… seems strange._**

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**_Now for all the people who helped (or offered to help) me out with the Dumbledore scene: first of all, thank you, without you I would be stuck writing that damned scene still. I hope you all liked the outcome. First, thanks to Sarah who combined my versions into one so nicely. I LOVE MWPP stories! When you start yours, please tell me, all right? Then, thank you to Lil Lupin for revising that version and perfecting it. You're right; it does sound more like Dumbledore in full form. Then to all the other people who offered to help: Hels, Kandice (MSN said your email address doesn't exist so it wouldn't send), and Joanna. You guys are all great._**

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**_I hope everyone liked this chapter. Next chapter is going to be the continuation of this day, with such things as what Dumbledore wanted to talk to Remus, Sirius and Harry about; triple Potions; a surprise meeting (the happy kind); something about the book unfolds really slowly. Really slowly. Really. Allen is back; Sirius meets some old friends; etc. This chapter, the next one and maybe the one after that are the happy chapters, more or less. And then, well they're less so. Please review, and hey, tell me, should I have any romance in here? I think I'm trying to do too much things in one and adding romance in this would be too much… maybe just a tiny bit… Well anyway, please click that little Go button besides Submit Review. All right? Thanks._**


	8. The Order's Reactions

**_Ok, I'm not planning to do any romance. Anymore. I've decided it'd be too much, and I'm going to start another story, _that_ one about romance, when I'm close to being finished with this. I always get details like eye _****_colours screwed up; forgive me. And Hermione being in Divination: she's there because of those temporary timetable things. Remember? The school's a bit disorganized right now (they've never even seen the DADA teacher YET) so they have temporary schedules for the week that may not agree with their course selections and all. Sorry for the confusion (I kinda made up the timetables last chapter to have an excuse for making such mistakes in the future lol). Another thing, from last chapter, I don't remember if anyone ever told Hagrid that Sirius was innocent in the books. Since in the last chapter of my story, Hagrid knows, then let's say someone along the way told him if in the books no one did. Thanks to all the wonderful people who've reviewed! So much people reviewed, I'm in shock. Please R&R._**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius enjoyed lunch. It took all his self-control not to leap onto the table and just devour everything in sight, but it was worth it. The food there was amazing, better than Sirius had remembered it to be. Harry continuously put down plates of food beside him for the dog and had to replace them with new ones almost instantly. Well, Sirius was really hungry.

Finally, after everyone was full and the lunch break began, Sirius and Harry headed to the headmaster's office.

"Marauder's Map." Harry said to the stone gargoyle. Sirius was still amused by the password, apparently, because he ran into the room, barking happily.

But once he'd transformed back into a human, Sirius barely had time to breathe. People came at him from different directions, hugging him, greeting him, telling him off, and whatever else they were saying was lost in the noise. Remus Lupin, Allen Krived, Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter stood at the side, watching, as the Order members greeted Sirius. It must've been hard to breathe for him in the mess, because a few minutes later, Snuffles wiggled out from between a few people, running over to the five and hiding behind Harry. It took the crows another moment to realize he was gone and they turned back to him as he whimpered. Luckily, this time they were more civilized.

"Sirius! You're back!" Nymphadora Tonks (whose hair was now long, curly and strawberry blonde) exclaimed. Slowly and cautiously, Sirius transformed back again. "I thought Remus was joking or something but no, you're back, you're here!" She continued. "I'm so sorry! They told me what happened, I should have finished Bella off, that–!"

"Are you all right, dear? All this and being brought back to life… you must be really tired! And hungry!" Molly Weasley worried.

"How was it down there? That Veil is just about the biggest mystery of the Ministry. What was it like?" Alastor Moody questioned.

Everyone was talking at the same time and it was hard to make out everything. Sighing, Sirius sat down on an armchair beside him. This was going to take a while. At the side, Dumbledore told Harry to get on to his classes, which were to begin in five minutes.

"Sirius might be in here for a long time." Dumbledore chuckled, watching everyone fuss over Sirius.

Harry waved to Sirius, who looked at him pleadingly before being obstructed from view by Fred and George Weasley (they were now in the Order as well). Ever since the twins found out that Sirius and Remus were two of the four people behind the Marauder's Map, they became absolutely fascinated with the two.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So what did Dumbledore want to talk to you about?" Ron asked as soon as Harry joined him and Hermione on their way to Potions.

"Nothing, he just wanted to give the Order members time to welcome Sirius back." Harry replied.

"Well we've got triple Potions. Too bad Sirius isn't here, I would pay so much to see the expression on Professor Snape's face when he first sees him." Hermione giggled, and Harry and Ron looked at her proudly.

"Look, Dumbledore said that um, Snuffles could stay here…" Harry began.

"Oh that's great!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yeah, but I don't know if it is… I mean I agreed and I'd love for him to stay here but I don't know if it's the best idea. First of all, it's full of people; he could always get caught. Second of all, we have the mirrors now anyway and we can always communicate if anything happens." Harry said.

"Mirrors?" Ron asked confused.

"Oh yeah, the mirror that Hermione helped me fix; Sirius gave me that… before… and I'd only opened it after we came back from the Ministry… anyway he has another one; if I just say his name to my mirror and he has his with him, we could talk to each other through them." When he finished, Harry caught their accusatory stares, "I didn't tell you before because you'd think I was still hung up on the whole… thing."

"But you were." Hermione pointed out. "And it's a good thing you were too, because otherwise he would never have gotten out."

"What is this here? Shouldn't you be heading to class instead of standing here and discussing… matters?" A cold, suspicious voice said from behind them. The trio turned around to meet the constantly apprehensive pale face of Severus Snape.

"Yes, Professor Snape." They chorused glumly.

"You three have detention tonight with me. Maybe that'll teach you to linger in the halls when you should be walking to class." And with a nasty smirk, he went off ahead of them to his classroom.

"So, Harry, you'd be allowed to bring Snuffles to detention right? Just for today?" Hermione asked, smiling. Maybe this particular detention won't be too bad.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In Potions class, they were to make a Revealing Potion in groups of three, so, naturally, the trio worked together. Hermione was doing most of the potion making, with Harry and Ron mostly following her instructions. Meanwhile, they were continuing their conversation from the hall.

"Look, Harry, if Snuffles staying here was such a bad idea, then why would Dumbledore suggest it?" Ron asked a perfectly reasonable question.

"Well, that's the thing. Dumbledore was so relieved to see Siri—Snuffles. And he felt guilty for locking him up in that hideous place for so long… he didn't want to do that again, so I think that's why he offered him to stay here." Harry said thoughtfully.

"Look, I think you should talk to Snuffles about this." Hermione said. "It would be best. Even if he still has to stay in Grimmauld, but they let him do something more than clean the house, it won't be so bad. Besides, they're working on clearing his name and all, and once that's over, he wouldn't have to hide anymore at all."

"You're right but I still don't know. I _want _him to stay here…" Harry said. He was so confused, torn between the part of him that was sensible and the part that was jumping at the opportunity to have Sirius stay with them.

"Look, Harry, you have to do what's best for everyone. I know you want him to stay; I do too but it really is not that good an idea." Then another idea struck Hermione. "Wait, maybe he can stay in the Shrieking Shack again." She whispered in excitement.

"NO TALKING!" Snape suddenly yelled from across the room. "Weasley, Granger, Potter. I believe you three already have detention with me tonight, would you like to make that a daily activity?"

"No sir." They replied, quite annoyed. From then on, the three worked really hard and by the end of the third class (the potion was really hard to make and took a long time to cool down), they were the first people to get it right.

"And what is this potion made for?" Snape asked grumpily.

"It reveals one's true intentions and/or identity." Ron answered, earning himself a look from Hermione. She loved answering questions but he wanted to make sure Snape didn't find anything wrong so that he was forced to give them points (he would have found something insulting to say if Hermione had answered).

"Three points to Gryffindor." Snape grumbled unhappily. It was almost a necessity that teachers give the students who finish tasks first house points. Snape walked to the other side of the room, looking for someone to yell at after failing to do so with his favourite targets.

"Well, from him, three points is an honour." Ron stated. And, to further Snape's disappointment, the three went on talking the rest of the period.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After dinner, the trio came up to their common rooms to leave their things before heading to detention. There they were met by Sirius, in his dog form, and Lupin.

"You're early." Remus stated after they greeted each other.

"We have detention." Sirius looked at Harry accusingly. "With Snape." Harry cleared up.

"Everyone else is still down there, I think it's safe if Sirius transforms now." Hermione noted. Sirius didn't need asking twice; he turned into a human instantly.

"Ok, Sirius, I think I need to talk to you about something." Harry said when Hermione gave him a look.

"Ok, what?" He asked.

"Well, I don't think it's a great idea if you stay here, even as Snuffles. It's too risky right now…" Harry averted his godfather's eyes.

"You want me to go back to Grimmauld?" Sirius asked, almost disbelievingly.

"No!" Harry said quickly.

"You could stay at the Shrieking Shack again." Hermione said.

"At least until you're cleared and everything." Ron added. "We'd come by to visit you and all…"

"I think that would be a better idea too, Padfoot." Remus turned to Sirius, who was thinking.

"Fine. I'll stay there. Harry, do you still have that mirror I gave you?" Harry took it out of his pocket; he'd kept it in there ever since Hermione repaired it. "Ok, well I guess we can always communicate with that…" Sirius said.

"That's what I said." Harry grinned.

"We'd better get going. Dinner will be over soon." Hermione said.

"Ok, but one more thing," Remus began, "well we're going to get a hearing on the matter of Sirius's innocence in next Saturday. Just thought you'd want to know."

"Can we help out?" Harry asked, instantly interested. He was determined to prove that Sirius was innocent.

"Probably. I think we need all the help we can get. One of us will tell you if you can do anything… well you better go." Remus said. "And so should I. Oh, Harry, that mirror, I have one too. If you ever need to talk to me or anything…" Harry nodded. "Well, I better be off too. Bye."

"Bye." The trio said almost simultaneously.

"See ya, Moony." Sirius waved. He turned back to Harry, Hermione and Ron once Remus left. "So… how would you feel about me paying a visit to dear old Snivelly along with you three?" And he transformed back into the dog, joining the trio on their way back to the Potions classroom.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When the door opened and Harry, Hermione, Ron and Snuffles came in, Snape didn't bother to look up.

"I need you three to clean up the mess over at Longbottom's table." Neville's potion had backfired again. The cauldron had broken into tiny shreds and the sticky potion was spread all over that part of the classroom. One of the ingredients of the potion, if used incorrectly, stuck to surfaces so tightly that it was impossible to get it off in Muggle ways. "And consider yourselves lucky. No magic." Snuffles barked angrily and Snape finally looked up. He noticed the big black dog and a look of horror passed through his features, then recognition, surprise, astonishment and anger. He looked paler than ever. "W-what is _he_ doing here?" He asked angrily. Sirius decided to answer that himself.

"I thought I'd come to visit an old friend, Snivelly." He said calmly after transforming again.

"Sirius. Shouldn't you be dead?" Snape replied in his usual tone, calming down a little. "Something about a veil and Bellatrix…"

"Now, now, did you really think a piece of cloth would make me go away?" Sirius shook his head.

"How did you get out?"

"Harry helped me out." Sirius said evenly.

"Oh that's-that's—who let you in the castle anyway?" Snape kept asking.

"Professor Dumbledore. Said I could stick around here for a while. I hope you don't mind." He said mockingly.

"Mind—YOU THREE!" Snape suddenly turned to Harry, Hermione and Ron, who were watching the scene. "Get. To. Work. NOW!" He yelled. They walked off to the messy desks, casting looks of pure hatred on Snape. Meanwhile Sirius sat down on top of one of the desks, still wearing the same calm, almost mocking, expression.

"So, Snivelly, we haven't really gotten a chance to talk lately." Sirius said in mock concern.

"No, you've been too locked up and busy doing nothing to talk." Severus retorted.

"Yeah… you're right. But now I'm not. So how've you been, Snivelly? Still teaching Potions? Do you know who's teaching Defence this year?" Sirius smiled at the extremely irritated look on Snape's face.

"They haven't appointed anyone…" Severus started.

"But they have. So you didn't hear?" Snape looked at him in confusion, the trio listened intently too. "Remember Allen? Allen Krived?" Snape scowled and Harry's mouth fell open. Hermione and Ron just looked confused. They were barely told about Allen, except Harry mentioning his name in his quick explanation during Magical Creatures.

"What?" Severus snapped. He was obviously still trying to get that job. "_Him??_"

"Oh yeah. I just found out too. They wanted Moony again—apparently he was pretty much everyone's favourite teacher, even with the werewolf thing—but he refused. Too busy, you know. So Dumbledore asked Allen and, well…" Sirius smirked. Snape looked outraged.

"GO!" He yelled suddenly. "LEAVE. You three finish cleaning, but YOU, leave!"

"Um, Professor, we're done." Hermione said. They'd used magic while Snape wasn't looking. Snape looked ever angrier.

"Fine. Get. Out. Of. My. Classroom." He said slowly, emphasizing every word. Apparently, he wasn't fond of Allen any more than he was fond of the Marauders. Sirius jumped off the desk, transforming into the dog and trotted out happily with the trio, leaving Snape along with his rage.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You can stay with us until the weekend." Harry was telling Sirius. They were in one of those hidden rooms of the school, with Sirius human again. They needed a place to talk.

"Yeah, you can sleep in our dormitories and during the day, um go to Dumbledore or something." Ron added.

"Because if you stay with us in classes, we'll never learn anything. Funny how many people in this school are dog lovers." Hermione joined in.

"Ok, ok." Sirius laughed.

"Hey, for a change of topic, tell us about this Allen guy." Ron asked Sirius.

"Oh yeah. Damn, I ruined the surprise for you, sorry. I just had to see the look on Snivelly's face." Sirius chuckled. "Ok, well he's appointed the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, as you now know. Um he was an Auror; I don't know what happened with that. I don't know why he isn't in the Order either. But anyway, Allen's a really good guy. I think he's just a bit younger than Dumbledore but he acts even younger. He'll be a really fun teacher; we had him back in our sixth and seventh years. He's really nice, too. Snivellus met him only a couple of times but already managed to hate him, so I think that can be counted as a good thing. They asked Moony to take up the job again, but he didn't want to. Wanted to do more for the Order, you know."

"He's gonna help with the Ministry trial stuff too, right?" Harry asked.

"Allen? Yeah. Apparently, he kept in touch with all these people from our year… quite a few are in the Ministry now, we'll talk to them… if we had a witness, then there'd be no problem but the only witness is Peter, so that's not happening." Sirius replied thoughtfully.

"Why can't they just put a truth potion or something like that on you, then they'd know you're telling the truth." Ron said. It did seem like the easiest solution.

"Oh, Dark Magic can easily block even the most complex truth potions, or charms, spells, anything. You don't even need Dark Magic, if you have enough control of your inner self, you can block that stuff." Hermione replied. "Kind of like all that Occlumency stuff."

"Oh man. So what happens if they decide that you're guilty?" Ron asked cautiously.

There was a silence. "They'll probably put me back in Azkaban or give me the Kiss." Sirius said thoughtfully. He looked horrified at the idea.

"Well we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen then." Harry said to break the silence that had ensued again.

"We should go back to our common room, it's getting late." Hermione noted.

"Yeah let's go. I'm really getting tired of transforming back and forth though." Sirius said, sighing as he once again transformed into Snuffles, following the trio out of the room and to the Fat Lady portrait.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ok, I finished. I would have finished this earlier but yesterday I was really hyper and I couldn't bring myself to write anything serious, and before that I was working on my Friends fic (I have to stop forgetting about that one), and then there were problems with FF.NET, so, well, I didn't. So many people reviewed though! Oh my God!

Auriablack, aww thanks. Ron Weasley, thank you so much, you're so nice. Sorry, I'm not doing romance anymore. Maybe some other time. Lil Lupin thanks. shining-star, thank you so, so much and I know what you mean; the stories make it a lot better. Trish, I know, damn JKR for being such a good writer and making us fall in love with him. Ginny, thanks a lot. You never know, she might bring him back in the next book so don't give up completely. And I have to agree; her style is different in OotP… padfoot, ok, no romance. I like 'sappy' stories sometimes but it wouldn't mix well with what I have here already… beliya, I'm glad you like it. I fixed the eye colours thing a few days ago finally, and as I said in the first A/N, the timetables are temporary and not customized so Hermione had Divination too. Tillia KaWaii, wow, thank you. Padfoot79 thanks a lot. Kandice, lol, I finally got chocolate! That's why I was too hyper to write serious stuff lately. I'm still thinking about how I will fit Lucius into the plot, so give me some time for that, ok? Bree Cheese Eater, lol, nice name, and I wish it were true too. Hopefully JKR has a good reason for doing what she did. Vesha thanks. Sirius of my Heart, whoa, I do all those things except dream about killing Bellatrix, unfortunately. I barely dream because I spend whole days and nights reading Sirius fics, and then I get no sleep and when I do get sleep, I'm too tired to dream anything. Burning, thank you. Ice, there's Tonks. I should have written her when I was hyper; I don't think she came off hyper enough. Thanks! Sarah thanks. WeaselGirlmmm, Harry was a bit of a jerk in book 5, yeah, but he's usually a good character still. I was angry too. Upset, then angry, then devastated, then came the fanfics stage, which can be called denial, but I like that stage. Acceptance isn't going to happen for me though. peachgirl1608, I know, *sobs with you *. Padfoot's Bone, I had that thought in mind too when I was writing but then I figured that it'd be better if Sirius wasn't right at Hogwarts, that'd be too problematic right now, thus the Shrieking Shack again. Ali, thank you, um, I just realized how much things in my story Dumbledore doesn't know… from now on, I'm gonna make him more knowing. Tonks, there, I did. Christine, thank you, sorry I couldn't finish faster. Kaitlyn, :D, here you go.

Aah, look at all the people, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope you liked this chapter, it is going to get into more meaningful chapters soon enough but I wanted to take a break and give Harry and Sirius some happy-time. The last conversation was mostly for your guys' benefit, so if it seems a little interview-y, sorry. Hey, did everyone have that problem with FF.net in the past two days? For me, it didn't open at all, my mom got so annoyed because I kept worrying about it… Well anyway, please review and see ya next time, hopefully soon.


	9. Into the Shrieking Shack

Oh yeah, GREAT. The notice chapter screwed everything up. I deleted it and now all the reviews stayed at the same chapter numbers and… it's just screwed up now. Damn. Well, um, notes on this and other stuff at the bottom because I want to get to writing the story already. I think I'm skipping a day. If Harry went to rescue Sirius during Wednesday and the last two chapters were about that day. And now it's Friday, and tonight, they're moving Sirius into the Shrieking Shack. So let's just say Thursday was so uneventful and boring that it's not necessary to be told about. ;) And I use 'the dog' (or that in a possessive tense) often instead of Snuffles or Sirius or Padfoot because it just seems weird to say Sirius's tail and the rest are nicknames and it just seems weird, period. And, um, in chapter 7, I said something about a full moon the day before… never mind that, I was going somewhere with that but I changed that whole thing so now the full moon is tonight instead. Bear with me there please.

****

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Oh my…" Hermione gasped. She was staring at the front page of the Daily Prophet. They'd expected bad news every day since things had been too quiet lately, but that didn't mean they were ready for bad news.

"Well…" Ron said impatiently when Hermione didn't explain her little outburst. He and Harry stared at her, waiting for an elaboration. Even the large black dog beside Harry stopped munching on his food, focusing his big, concerned eyes on the girl.

"…_Several more Death Eaters had escaped from Azkaban Fortress, covered by the darkness of the night of September the fifth. The names of the escapees are withdrawn from public knowledge by Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. Nevertheless, it is known that many of the fugitives had just been put into the Fortress two nights ago. Many of the others had been arrested by the testimony of the Boy Who Lived, none other than Harry James Potter, months ago. The massive breakout caused much distress to the wizard community, many people, fearing the worst, are taking drastic measures…_" Hermione broke off and looked up. Harry, Ron, and Sirius glared at her, speechless.

"But they had just gotten the Dementors back in control!" Ron exclaimed, a little desperately. Hermione glanced at him helplessly, then turned her gaze to Harry. He was clearly trying to absorb the information, but wasn't very successful. So many things ran through his panicked mind that he barely comprehended any of them. He flinched when he felt something cold and wet nudge his hand, then looked down to see that it was just Sirius, trying to get his attention to see if he was all right.

"It's fine. It'll be ok." Harry reassured the canine form of his godfather. The dog didn't look convinced. He nudged the boy's hand up to the top of his furry head and looked at Harry, his eyes looking mischievous and innocent; careless and pleading; concerned and playful… all at the same time. Harry laughed and patted the dog's head. "No, really. We'll figure something out. Don't worry." Sirius glanced at him again, this time less doubtful, and went back to eating. Why let food go to waste?

"Harry—" Hermione began.

"No, really. Look, we've just gotten Sirius back and no one is attacking us at this moment. Let's just enjoy it for a tiny bit more. They won't attack anytime soon anyway." Harry said reasonably.

"Why not?" Ron asked.

"Their escape will soon be known to everyone; they won't risk anything anytime soon." Harry replied. Then he sighed, looking at everyone's worried expressions. "I'll be careful."

"We better get going to class." Hermione finally stated, breaking the silence. "We can't get detention today, we're helping him move into the place, remember?" She said, avoiding labels. "See you, Snuffles." She got up and waited for Ron and Harry to do so as well.

"Bye" Harry stood up after scratching behind the dog's ears. "Meet us in the common room after classes, ok?"

"Bye, mate." Ron said. Sirius winked at them and trotted along to go off and wait in the common room for now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius lifted his head, confused at his surroundings at first. He had dozed off, curling up as a dog on Harry's bed, and had just woken up. He moved a bit and accidentally knocked a book off the little desk beside the bed. He jumped off the warm mattress and took the book in his paws, setting it back onto the table. He may look like a dog, but he was still a man inside and he wasn't going to take inedible things into his mouth when he could just as easily pick them up with his paws. He was about to settle back into his spot and continue his nap when something made him look back at the book. A page was bookmarked somewhere in the very end of the book; it looked torn and old, yet at the same time, unused and fairly new. It was called 'Hidden Places', written by… wait. Sirius did a double take. 'Hidden Places'. The title was shining brightly, written in unique and appealing calligraphy, sunrays from the window bouncing off of the letters. He knew this book. He remembered it clearly. He also remembered that it had never left the possession of one Peter Pettigrew. So how in the world did Harry get it?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

By the time that classes ended, however, that thought was driven out of Sirius's mind. He met the trio joyfully as they came into the common room. He twisted his way out of a few people's embraces to do so.

"Hey Snuffles." Harry bent down to him. The dog's tail was wagging wildly and Harry laughed at his happiness.

"We've got to stay here for now, because it'd look pretty suspicious for three six-years and a dog to disappear under the Whomping Willow in the middle of the day. And we won't all fit under the Invisibility Cloak." Ron told Sirius. 

"Dumbledore gave us permission to go about ten or whenever everyone else gets inside. So, technically, we won't be sneaking out." Hermione said, looking pleased.

"Want to get Remus to come too?" Harry asked quietly, still kneeled down beside his godfather. He wagged his tail even more energetically as a sign of consent.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry, Ron and Hermione huddled tightly together under the Invisibility Cloak. Sirius, his dog form barely visible in the darkness, walked beside them. Clouds covered the sky, not allowing a single hint of moonlight to shine through, very unlike the weather during the day. However, it suited them, so the four were silently thanking the Lord for hiding the moon that would otherwise be shining brightly on them, in its full strength.

When they met Remus down in the Shack, it was close to eleven o'clock, but even Hermione wasn't worried about not getting enough sleep.

"Moony, hey!" Sirius rushed to meet his best friend, glad to finally be able to be human again.

"Hey Padfoot." Remus looked pale but happy nevertheless. "Hey, Harry, Hermione, Ron." He greeted the trio warmly.

"Hey Remus." Harry smiled.

"Hello." Ron said.

"Hello, Remus." Hermione replied. Then she paused and continued, rather uncomfortably. "Isn't tonight full moon?"

"Yeah." Remus sighed. "I had to make the potion myself, I just hope it turns out ok. Just in case, I think I should go back to Grimmauld when it gets closer to midnight." He was able to fight off the transformation, but at midnight it became inevitable.

"Nah, you shouldn't. We spent years in this house with you back in school on nights like these, I don't see why you can't stay here and keep me company." Sirius half-begged. "Please? You know, if I'm left alone for any more time, I might do something that I'll regret." Remus rolled his eyes.

"But if the potion isn't working for any reason, promise me you'll send me back to Grimmauld alone." Remus gave in.

"Marauder's honour." Sirius smiled.

The five of them stayed, talking, until it was almost midnight.

"You guys better go." Sirius said to the trio as Remus became paler and was starting to transform.

"Bye Sirius, bye Remus!" Hermione called out.

"Bye." Ron waved.

"We'll come back tomorrow, all right?" Harry said, getting up to get the Cloak. Remus and Sirius said their goodbyes to them and the three disappeared into the tunnel leading to the Hogwarts grounds.

Remus bent over in agony behind the torn couch as the wolf took over his body. Sirius sympathized him. Changing Animagus form was painless and relatively easy once you figure out how and practice it a lot. But changing into the wolf was the furthest thing from painless. Apart from the physical changes, Sirius knew that letting go of his human mind was even harder for Remus. He was scared, even with the many potions and Sirius helping him out in his canine form.

Finally, the change finalized and for a few moments Sirius no longer saw his best friend in the eyes of the wolf, but a bloodthirsty creature. Remus leaped at the dog in front of him, seeing only a meal, his human mind pushed into his subconscious. Sirius jumped away from the assault, but didn't get far enough away. A claw tore into the fur of the dog, who whimpered and jumped further away from the attack. Sirius looked at Remus with deep hurt evident in his eyes for a second. That lost, hurt look cleared up the mind of the werewolf and his eyes lost the hungry spark.

Sirius stepped forward confidently and walked up to Remus, who didn't move. The potion's effects as well as Sirius's familiar presence pushed Remus out of the haze he seemed to be in as a wolf and instantly he knew that his mind was no longer wolf-like. He immediately felt a pang of guilt and looked at Sirius apologetically. Sirius, however, didn't think twice about it, the careless and playful look returning to his eyes as he saw his friend return to his normal mental state.

It felt almost like old times, but both the friends missed James deeply. His spirit still lingered in the atmosphere of the shack, even after the many years he had been gone. They wished he could be there with them, playing around, destroying the furniture only to repair it again, for the most part, in the morning, and enjoying being able to be careless without any real consequences…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Oh, I forgot my mirror back there" Harry suddenly remembered when the trio had almost reached the school. "You guys go, I'll be really quick."

"Wait, Harry—" Hermione began.

"It's ok, I'm not going to get killed or anything. I promise." He shouldn't have.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry hurried back into the shack, quickly and carefully disabling the Willow and descending into the dark. He halted for a second and went inside. There, the wolf and dog were playing around with each other and he chuckled at how adolescent they were acting, turning their attention towards him. Immediately, Sirius jumped in front of Remus in alarm, Remus's eyes widened and a shadow of hunger flickered in them. Harry turned serious and stepped back. He looked around and quickly grabbed the mirror, which was lying right beside the couch in front of him. Remus looked panicked and as if he was going to lose control soon and Sirius looked at his godson in worry, silently pleading him to leave before Remus lost his senses to the wolf inside him.

Harry looked at them apologetically for a second and quickly rushed out of the room, praying along the way that he hadn't influenced Remus enough to change his mind into that of the wolf's again. He climbed out from under the Willow and slowed down, mentally hitting himself for being so stupid. The sight of a human makes Remus's werewolf senses become top priority. Even with the Wolfsbane potion active. Harry mentally kicked himself again.

"Harry Potter." An ice cold, taunting voice suddenly cut through the peace of the night sharply. Harry recoiled at the abrupt sound, looking up… into the face of Lucius Malfoy. He shivered, suddenly feeling extremely cold, even though the night was warm. The man in front of him was smirking at Harry's fear. His eyes penetrated him like thousands of daggers. Frozen daggers. "What a pleasure." A ray of light shone through the clouds just then. Harry looked around. People in black cloaks stepped out around him. He was surrounded.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**_Ok, I hope I write Lucius ok. Um, I'm going to be gone for 10 days starting tomorrow morning and I don't think I'll be able to update tomorrow, sorry! I might if I get a lot of reviews today *wink, wink, nudge, nudge * lol. Now, review replies, Lil Lupin, yes it probably is and thank you. Kandice, yep, and I get lots of chocolate for the trip since my parents are separating me from computer/Internet access. The Lucius thing here (it's continuing next chapter) is for you lol. BuffyHalliwell lol, I read that story, once I finish this, I'll go read the update on Until My Dying Day. Kaitlyn, :D:D:D yeah Allen should be a pretty fun teacher. Someone, aww thank you, and well, we'll see about that ;) you'll have to wait. Tropic, aww thanks, I'll try to update as soon as I get back or (I'll say it again) before I leave if I get lots of reviews ;D. Um ok, I have to say, I'm sorry about the removing the notice thing. Lil Lupin and Kandice, since you two reviewed before I deleted the notice and it says you reviewed chapter 9 when you actually did chapter 8, would you please be so kind as to review this chapter unsigned in or put your review of this in the chapter 7 reviews, where the notice used to be… please. Sorry about this. Thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review!_**


	10. Kidnapped

I have a few issues to tend to before we get on with the story, all right?

First, the long, long, long delay to this chapter. I'm really sorry about that. I have excuses, if that counts any. First my trip got extended and then well when I came home, my computer turns out to have caught a virus some time and I was trying to fix that up and I had so many things to catch up on… time just kind of flew by. And then I ended up in the middle of that blackout, you know, the one where most of Canada and some of US got their electricity shut off. However, I updated now and I intend on returning to my regular updating schedule of once in two-three days. I honestly hope that people didn't give up on my fic because of the delay and I am truly sorry.

Second, the reviews… WOW. I mean that. Wow. Before I left, I didn't really have time to update new chapters but I read a few of the reviews that had been written so far and I'd expected maybe two more or so, as is the usual average but wow. Now I got 108 reviews and 13 people have me as their favorites! I'm really, really honoured. Thank you guys so much! You're amazing. It makes me feel worse for letting you down and not updating this long and I hope you still want to read this. Now, before you get too bored, please read and review the latest chapter! Thank you!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well, well, well." Lucius continued. "I've been wanting to meet you again, Potter. You see, me and my partners here aren't too happy with your latest stroke of heroism." Harry moved slightly in the direction of the castle. "_Vulnero!_"

Harry felt a surge of pain in his left arm; the mirror he was holding fell out on the ground but he paid no attention to it. Harry clutched his arm instinctively and then looked for the result of the spell. His arm was bleeding; there was a cut along it. He looked up at Lucius, who was smirking, apparently proud of his work. Harry gathered up all his will not to look as if he was in pain. He didn't want to give Lucius that pleasure.

"Where's your master?" Harry spit out. He looked at the Hogwarts castle. They couldn't just not notice this, could they?

Lucius glared at him for a moment. "It's none of your business." He snapped, and then returned to his mockingly calm tone of voice. "We just came here to have a bit of fun." Seeing Harry glancing up to the Hogwarts castle, he added, "don't worry; no one from that wretched excuse for a school will be able to see us. I made sure of that." Lucius laughed mockingly. "Look at you, the Boy Who Lived, all alone… Where's your fan club? Or that damned godfather of yours, Sirius Black, isn't he? Still hiding, I presume. He never was worth much, was he now?" Harry remained quiet, staring at Lucius with all the hatred he could muster. He felt it best not to speak at the moment, as the only coherent things that would've come out of his mouth would be extremely rude words. "Say something." Lucius began to get annoyed at the boy's silence. "Do you want your mommy? Wish she was here to save you again?" Harry didn't move. "SAY SOMETHING!" Lucius bellowed, losing his temper. "_Crucio!_"

Pain flowed through every inch of Harry's body, taking over his mind. He knew he must've screamed but he didn't hear himself through the mess that seemed to have erupted all around him. Everything was getting mixed up and he thought he saw two animal shapes emerge somewhere but he was no longer sure what was going on in reality after that. All of a sudden, when Harry was giving up on trying to hold on to his sanity, the spell ended. His vision brightened up and he could definitely make out shapes fighting, though he still wasn't sure what they were. Twitching from the after-effects of the spell, Harry felt around for his glasses that seemed to have flown off sometime in the process. Finding them and putting them on, he looked around.

The first thing he noticed was the mirror lying beside him and the image of a dark, torn up room could be seen in it. Harry put the mirror in his robe pocket; then he looked up and wondered how he could have noticed such a small thing as a mirror in the first place. Close beside him, a few Death Eaters were fighting off a wolf, which seemed extremely pissed off. It didn't look like an easy task and a couple of them were lying on the ground, apparently unconscious, with several bruises on them.

Several more Death Eaters were pulling something out of their robes and disappearing a bit further away, (Harry guessed that they had gotten illegal portkeys), and he didn't need to wonder why too long. A large black dog that looked suspiciously too much like a Grim was rounding in on them. The Death Eaters that had not disappeared were standing their ground, throwing all sorts of spells on the animal, but it seemed to be in the middle of a fit of murderous rage and was next to unaffected by them. Harry got up, pulling out his wand so he could help out Remus and Sirius, but never got that far.

"And where do you think you're going?" A voice hissed from behind him and Harry's happiness faded. He turned around to face Lucius and pointed his wand at him but he wasn't quick enough.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Harry's wand flew straight into Malfoy's hands. The boy was still experiencing after-effects of the Cruciatus Curse and reacted slower than usual. Lucius took out a shiny object that looked like a wristwatch. He then grabbed Harry's hand and pressed something on the watch. Only then did it dawn on Harry what the object really was. He saw Sirius running towards him, but knew it was too late when he felt himself and Lucius get pulled away. The last thing Harry saw before everything disappeared into a blur of bright colours was Sirius's desperate face as he helplessly watched his godson disappear.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'He left. _He left with Harry. _He got away with it.' Sirius was staring numbly at the now empty space in front of him, where his godson and Lucius Malfoy had stood just a second ago. Internally, he was cursing himself for letting Harry out alone. Why? Why had Harry not thought to use the mirror as soon as he'd seen danger? Why did he have to come back for the stupid thing alone anyway?

Sirius looked around. The Death Eaters that had been there just a second ago, had now disappeared as if on cue. Then Sirius heard the sounds unmistakably made by two people running. He tensed and readied for another fight but, thanks to his canine abilities, smelled the scent of the newcomers, and relaxed. It was Hermione and Ron.

"Sirius? Where's Harry?" Hermione, gasping for air, asked him. Ron came up close behind her and they both stared at the dog. Sirius glanced at Remus with caution; he wasn't sure how the werewolf would react to the two people present. However, the shock of Harry's kidnapping seemed to ground Remus and the only wolfish thing about him was his appearance. He trotted towards the three and lay down as a sign that it was all right. Sirius transformed from his Animagus form.

"Harry forgot the mirror you gave him and he told us he'd go get it and… well we waited but he didn't come back and we were getting worried about him and - where is he?" Hermione said all this extremely quickly; she seemed extremely unnerved by the look on Sirius's face.

"Death Eaters – they… We have to get to Dumbledore, all right?" He glanced back at Remus. " Get Dumbledore and come with him to the Shrieking Shack all right?"

"What's go-" Ron started but Sirius cut him off.

"I'll tell you then. Please, just… hurry up." Hermione opened her mouth to say something but Ron dragged her away towards the castle. Sirius and Remus, meanwhile, headed back to the Shack; they couldn't afford being spotted. They had guessed that Lucius and the rest of the Death Eaters had put some sort of enchantment on the grounds so they were temporarily invisible and untraceable from the castle but they didn't know how long it would stay effective. And while Sirius sat waiting for Harry's friends to come back with Dumbledore, feeling more helpless even than he had in Grimmauld Place, Harry was unconscious far away from him, in a locked room while his biggest enemies were discussing the weapon they were to use to kill Harry in the next room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The following week was chaos. The situation was soon known to everyone, though only the Order and few selected others knew the whole truth about Friday night. Media wasted no time in warping the event into a heroic and tragic incident, where Harry fought off dozens of Death Eaters on his own but was captured in a near-death state and kidnapped by the Dark Lord himself… The extent of the global knowledge of the facts from the incident was that Harry was kidnapped and Death Eaters had appeared on Hogwarts grounds. From there, everyone made up his or her own theories, each more bizarre than the previous.

"They're acting like it's something to celebrate!" Hermione exclaimed to Ron and Sirius, tears glistening in her eyes, as she and Ron went to join Sirius on the torn up couch of the Shrieking Shack. "He's all alone in there; it's not like he can just defeat Voldemort from the inside and escape without a scratch!" She continued in exasperation.

"Trelawney seems to get it." Ron said bitterly. He had just had to sit through a Divination class that consisted of Professor Trelawney predicting Harry's horrible fate. She improvised on Harry's absence by predicting that Ron would see the whole thing, 'as the Powers had whispered in her ear'.

"Ignore them." Sirius said for what seemed like the hundredth time. It had been five days since that fateful Friday and the three catching up on each other's processes became a daily event. Every effort was already being made to track where Harry and Lucius had disappeared that night, but it had been useless so far. The timing couldn't have been worse; on top of all the recent events, Sirius still had Saturday's trial, and though he had barely given it a thought, others had.

"Any progress?" Ron asked.

"No. Portkeys are supposed to leave a trace, even the illegal ones, but these didn't. There's nothing. It's like they disappeared into thin air." Sirius shook his head. "We're barely in contact with Dumbledore; he's trying to work out something with the Ministry but I bet that's a tricky business."

"Did you try using that mirror thing?" Ron asked.

"Tried that on Saturday. It didn't work. Which means he's either unconscious, unreachable, or…" Sirius broke off, staring into a corner of the Shack. Hermione's eyes began watering again.

"But he can't be… We'd - we'd know if he… I mean, if he was… then Vo-Voldemort wouldn't be hiding anymore would he?" Ron said uncertainly. Hermione and Sirius looked a little reassured by this.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Hermione said, cheering up slightly. "So, Sirius, what about the trial?"

"I talked to Kiara today about that." Sirius sighed. "I think we rushed into this too fast but she figured it'd be fine. There's going to be about fifty people present at the trial, most of which are impartial, but many are inclined to side with Fudge and a few others are said to be in league with Voldemort so that's not too encouraging. Also, apparently, Fudge had ordered Dementors for the trial." Sirius shuddered. "If I lose… they're giving me the Kiss right away."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

All righty, coming up next chapter (which I hope to get up really soon) will be Allen's first DADA class with Hermione and Ron, the trial and, well, Harry and where he disappeared to and all. So that should be fun ;)

**_Padfoot10, mm popcorn… the Death Eaters didn't like sticking around with a Grim there, they are only wizards after all, and they're still mortal lol. Tropic, sorry, I updated now though. GinnylovesHarry, dreaming is always good. Dreams are my saviors. Thank you and keep up hopes, JKR isn't totally cruel and I believe that if Sirius doesn't come back, his death will be validated at least. Burning-Yami-Rain, Lucius is… evil, I don't know what's with him. Thanks. Smiley, thank you!!! Don't feel stupid, I think the majority of the readers cried about Sirius. Yes, he may be a character in a book but he just seems so real… Renton Kenobi, oh my gosh, I'm really sorry. Thanks for caring that much and I hope you're reading this chapter! shining-star20, thanks and sorry about the delay. Hywel, wow, thank you so, so much! Kandice! Hey! More Lucius for you here! I'll try not to imprison him this time, so maybe he'll return some other time ;) Prongs621 thanks :). Kaitlyn, lmao aww thanks! Ali, sorry, but I did have fun if that's any consolation lol. Lady Sandrilene (nsi), you're right, but, well, I wrote about 3 different post-OotP stories (or started them anyway) and some of those have more angst in them and I guess by the time I wrote the second chapter, I got most of that out and I just wanted to get Siri back. Besides, there's a reason why the book just fell into his lap lol. [I may post the other stories after I finish this.] Sirius-Hotness, aww thanks :) Padfoot79, that he is ;) Tillia KaWaii, lol yeah he probably would have said something like that. I'm making him too generous. Three whole points! Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I hope you're still reading this! Trella, all in good time my friend lol ;) Mornel thanks!_**

**_I think I might start one of those update list things. Anyone want to be on a mailing list for updates? If more than three people want to, then I could do that! ;) Please review! Thank you all so much for waiting and for reading this! I'll try to update really quickly and I will as long as that damned virus doesn't cut me off from the comp. ;)_**


	11. On Trial

Hey! Sorry it took me as long as it took. I'm getting back on schedule but really slowly. You know, when I started writing, I never even dreamed of having 100 reviews and now I got 115… Granted, I do have 10 (now 11) chapters up but still! It's really a big deal to me. I want to thank everyone who had followed through this fic with me and liked it! And I also want to warn you that I have no idea yet when this is going to end because well, truthfully, I suck at endings, all right? So, if this is a good thing, you can pretty much rely on many more chapters lol. ; ) All righty, please enjoy and remember to leave me a nice review!

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"Oh please, how old is this guy?"

"He'll probably fall asleep, die, and come back to teach as a ghost too."

"I bet his class will be really boring."

Whispers surrounded the Great Hall on Thursday, when this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher finally showed up. From experience of Professor Binns, their History of Magic teacher, the majority of the students figured Allen's class wouldn't be too interesting. However, Allen Krived was sitting at the staff table, merrily talking to his fellow professors, seemingly oblivious to the stares and whispers. He looked extremely happy and comfortable in his spot and engaged everyone around him in conversation. Snape alone was unhappy with the addition. He kept scowling and looked as if he was holding back something insulting.

Though most of the students did not look forward to Allen's class, Harry and Hermione were thrilled. Hermione was more cheerful than she had been the whole week and Ron was even happier because of this. They talked excitedly about what their first DADA class, which they had together right before lunch, would be like. The way Sirius talked about the new teacher, it was sure to be one of their best classes yet, even if most of the students didn't seem to think so. However, the two didn't get far into the conversation because breakfast ended and they had to go separate ways.

"See you in Defense" Ron said and Hermione waved as they left to their morning classes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

People filled into the DADA classroom lazily. Allen was sitting behind his desk, looking calmly at the students as they curiously looked around the renovated room. It wasn't decorated nearly as much as it had been the other years, yet it somehow had a cozy, safe feeling to it. There were several strange objects throughout the room, some of which were familiar, though most were not. On his desk were placed the most normal, yet highly peculiar objects. There was a small heart-shaped music box, an alarm clock, a decorative lamp, a small bottle of perfume (which caused many raised eyebrows) and other various every-day objects, both Muggle and wizard. Finally, everyone had settled down and Allen got up from his seat and smiled at the class.

"My name is Allen Krived but I beg of you to call me Professor Allen at most formal. All right." Allen started after finishing taking the attendance. "I'm sure most of you already know that NEWT level Defense Against the Dark Arts classes are introductory courses for a career as, or relating to, an Auror. Since you'd already learned about the Unforgivable curses, I figured I'd start with that." He turned around and opened the music box on his desk. Immediately, soft classical music was filling the room and, as one, the class suddenly looked absent-minded and dreamy. Allen whispered something and the class paired up in twos and suddenly started dancing with each other to the music. Here and there, a few people stopped and were looking around vaguely, as if trying to figure out what was going on. Some recovered quicker and were laughing at the students stupidly moving around the room, acting similar to robots. Allen shut the box. The pairs of students separated, looking embarrassed and confused and scrambled back to their seats.

"Who can tell me what that was?" Hermione Granger's hand flew up into the air instantly. She had been one of the first people to resist, too. "Yes?"

"A rebound Imperius enchantment, placed on simple every-day objects, used on more than one person or to channel a great amount of energy into one person, making it harder to resist. They had been banned in 1879, though many Dark wizards still pass on the knowledge of the enchantments." She recited, as if reading from a textbook. "This particular one wasn't powerful enough to fully control a roomful of people. Ooh and also after a rebound Imperius enchantment, all knowledge of what had happened starting from when it began, is erased from one's mind."

"Excellent, Miss Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor." Hermione beamed. "The rebound Imperius enchantment, or Recrudescentium Imperius, its proper term, nowadays is mostly used in pranks and small things but is actually quite powerful. When done properly, it could put an entire Quidditch stadium of people under control of the caster. However, in mass numbers it is much easier to resist. It takes a lot of willpower and practice, but it is possible. As Miss Granger also noted, when it is directed at a single person, it channels a lot of energy on him or her and then becomes nearly impossible to resist, even for trained Aurors.

Lesson one in resisting the Recrudescentium Imperius. It sends you in a state of complete peacefulness but you must not want that. That's the mistake most people make. They want that feeling, that rest, and they give in almost willfully. You. Must. Not. Want. It. No matter how appealing rest may sound, you cannot give in! Let's---"

But Allen was broken off when Professor Snape walked into the room. He was wearing an extremely unpleasant expression on his face. He walked over to Allen and said something in a low voice. Allen nodded and took a piece of parchment from his desk while Snape took one of the pens lying on the desk and wrote something on the parchment. He frowned and wiped the words away, then resumed writing. He repeated this several times before giving up.

"You-you---you--- Ugh!" He threw Allen and the class an extremely nasty look that made Neville tremble in fright and walked out, furiously mumbling something to himself that contained the name Dumbledore. Written all over the parchment, in large letters, were the words I AM A GREASY-HAIRED GIT.

Somehow after that incident, people came to respect Allen much more than they had at first. They had in fact tried so hard that in just that one class, more than half of the students were able to resist the music box's enchantment. Though many were still skeptical about the new teacher, his behavior put them at ease and he quickly became one of their favourite teachers. It seemed that all of the first impressions of Defense teachers proved to be wrong.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Sirius Black. Sirius Black!" Harry called in vain. He had the mirror his godfather had given him last year clutched in his hands and was whispering frantically. Where was Sirius? Why wasn't he answering? Harry didn't know how long he'd been in this dark room. He only had a faint idea of where he was, too. All he knew was that he had woken up in here, with the exit locked up (no spell he knew broke the locks). Every once in a while, someone would come in to feed him and make sure he was still alive and sane. Harry had the feeling that they were waiting for something, for a sign, and then they would kill him. He wished he knew what the sign was.

Wormtail had come in most frequently. He seemed very disturbed and he was shaking every time he came into the room. He was the only one of Harry's 'guards' who would say a word to him. Well, the words he uttered were barely audible and he more squeaked than spoke them. From what he had let slip to Harry, Harry figured he was in a hideout provided by one of the Death Eaters, though that was not very helpful. Every once in a long while, what seemed to be a meeting happened in the room next to Harry's but he could never make anything out.

By now, he had given up and was lying on a torn up couch, thinking of the many things he could have done to prevent this when he heard the voices in the next room again. He would have done anything for one of those Extendable Ears of Fred and George's now. Then a new idea dawned on him. Harry remembered reading something about volume spells somewhere and a certain one popped into his head. He took out his wand, silently thanking the Lord that they hadn't taken it away and muttered _'Exaudio'_.

"—No. We can't do that right under their noses." Someone said.

"They wouldn't know—"

"Of course they'd know. They always know. The trial is tomorrow, correct?" The first person continued. "We'll see then. End of discussion."

Trial? Harry's mind raced. Was it possible they were talking about Sirius's trial? No, why would they care about that, he thought. But then again…

Harry needed someone to talk to. He called his godfather's name into the mirror again but with no result. Then he thought of something. Harry sighed, clutched the metal frame in his hand and said clearly,

"Remus Lupin." He waited but nothing happened. He waited for a bit, repeated the name and was about to put down the mirror and try to come up with something else when a face formed in the clear glass.

"Harry?" Remus asked unsurely. "Harry! Where are you?"

"Shh!" Harry whispered, bewildered. He could not risk getting caught now. "I have no idea. I think I'm in the Department of Mysteries.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Master's orders, Wormtail." A cold voice replied, exasperated, just outside the door to Harry's prison.

"But Lucius…" Peter squeaked.

"No buts Wormtail! I am taking him, now!" Just then, the owner of the bitter voice burst into the room. Sure enough, it was Lucius Malfoy, and Harry's heart sank again. What were they going to do? Harry barely struggled as Malfoy dragged him up and Harry though he saw a glint of something like happiness or relief in his eyes before shaking it off as an illusion.

"Lucius—" Peter was at the door, staring wildly at Harry.

"You can come along if you'd like. I don't have time for this." Lucius pushed Harry forward and the boy obeyed, thinking he would be happy to finally see sunlight. Wormtail lingered behind before choosing to follow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Those in favor of clearing the witness of all charges?" Fudge's taunting voice rose as he looked around at the people surrounding him. Sirius was standing in front of the panel of wizards, looking pale but composed. Beside him, Allen stood, looking rather nervous. On the benches along the sides sat the Weasley family along with Hermione, Remus Lupin, and numerous people from the Order, all looking anxious. Up at the benches, the Wizengamot voted. Several people, including Dumbledore, raised their hands. Fudge looked satisfied.

"Those in favor of—"

"Sorry to interrupt." Suddenly, three people burst into the room. Sirius's jaw fell open as he whirled around. Standing beside the door was Lucius Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew and Harry. "Oh." Lucius sighed and screwed up his eyes in concentration. Within seconds, in place of Malfoy was standing Nymphadora Tonks. She smiled confidently at Harry, who stood still in shock. Behind him, Wormtail was fidgeting and tried to run for the door but Tonks stopped him. "Not so fast."

"Excuse me." Fudge's face was a dark shade of purple and he sounded as if he was trying to calm himself. "But is there a reason that you are interrupting this trial?"

"Oh! Oh yes, of course." Tonks pushed Peter to the front. "This as you may know is no other than Peter Pettigrew." Gasps were heard from the Wizengamot. They began whispering to each other.

"Silence!" Fudge yelled. "Peter Pettigrew, you say?"

"Yes, that is he." Allen stepped up, nodding for Tonks and Harry to sit down. They did so, but not before Tonks almost knocked over one of the benches.

"Let him answer for himself then, would you?" Fudge snapped. "Are you or are you not the said Peter Pettigrew?"

"Yes I am." Peter answered in a strange, almost computerized way. More whispers followed.

"SILENCE! Well, Peter Pettigrew, what's your story then?" He sounded bitter. Peter stared at him blankly. Fudge rolled his eyes. "Did you or did you not frame the defendant Sirius Black on the night of November 1st, 1981?"

"Yes I did." Peter replied in the same monotonic voice. Now talks erupted from everyone in the room.

"SILENCE!!!" Fudge's face turned a deeper shade of purple. "And what happened that night?"

"Sirius was the only person alive who knew that I was the Potters' Secret Keeper. He tried to take revenge on me and I framed him by shouting out that he had betrayed them, killing a bunch of people on the street, cutting off my finger, after which I turned into my Animagus form, a rat, and ran away." Peter was still speaking in a hollow tone.

"Very well." A calm, melodic voice sounded from the Wizengamot. A pretty young witch with long light brown hair was speaking. She glanced at Sirius. "Based on this new evidence, all those now in favor of clearing the defendant of all charges?" The vast majority of the people in the group raised their hands. "Conviction?" Fudge and a few other people's hands rose feebly. "Sirius Black, congratulations." She smiled. "You are now officially declared innocent of the incident of November the first 1981. Peter Pettigrew, you shall be taken in for questioning. Case closed." She sat down and smiled happily.

It took the room a moment to realize what had happened. Suddenly it erupted with sounds of congratulations and happiness and Sirius was enveloped in hugs from his friends again. Harry's return did not pass by unnoticed either; as soon as the verdict settled in, everyone turned to him to welcome his return and well-being.

"Harry!" Hermione squeaked happily before embracing him in a tight hug. Her eyes were tear stained and she would not let go of Harry until she found that he could hardly breathe. "Oh, I'm so glad you're ok!"

"Me too. I missed you guys so much!" Hermione, however, did not get the chance to hug him again as Ron stepped in. Harry was soon welcomed back by everyone except Sirius. He was now hugging the woman who had spoken the ruling. It was Kiara.

Finally, the crowd was sent out by Fudge, who didn't look happy with the arrangements of the trial and Sirius and Harry at last got to greet each other properly.

"Harry!" Sirius called, catching up with his godson. "I'm so glad to have you back! Where did they take you? What did they do? Are you ok? Oh, I'm going to kill Lucius the first chance I get, I swear!" Harry laughed.

"Congratulations on the trial!" They hugged lightly.

"You know what it means though, right?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"Yeah!" Harry smiled. "Now I can live with you!"

"You still want to? I mean, you've seen Grimmauld Place and…"

"It's the best home I could ever have. Especially compared to the Dursleys. Of course I want to!" In relief, Sirius wrapped him in another hug.

It sure seemed like everything was over…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**_And that's the end of this chapter. More evilness coming up, I promise! I hope everyone's happy with the trial! I figured if Tonks was Metamorphagus and could shift into whatever she wants, she could change to look like another person, right? Trella, slowly and enjoyably is good but you'll have to wait till later for that, sorry. Erynwen, thanks! shining-star20, thanks. Lil Lupin, how was that? I'm not that evil, I'm in a generous mood right now writing this chapter so it was pretty happy, huh? DJ, thanks. K-Black, ok! Tillia KaWaii, lol yeah, here. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm trying to take less time updating but it's really hard. I still have tons of other peoples' updates to catch up on. Anyways, please review, it makes me so happy!_**


	12. Harry's Pensieve Memory

Hi! This took longer than I thought cause I had to prepare for school (I still cannot believe it's on Tuesday!), and the evilness will be present more in further chapters. First semester I got math, geography, gym and drama so that shouldn't be too hard or too much homework and I think it shouldn't distract me from updating really. Second term, I got French, English, computers and science, which might be harder, but at least I'll be used to school by then… I'll stop pretending you care what I have at school and let you get on with reading, which I hope you do care about. ;)

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"So what happened? Where were you? What… happened?" Hermione asked once she, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George got to their room. They were staying at Grimmauld Place for the night because everyone wanted to celebrate Sirius's newly proven innocence and Harry's return. Harry soon got tired of being attacked with questions and went upstairs, saying he was going to get some sleep. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Fred and George accompanied him, as they knew he had no plans to sleep.

"Well, uh…" Harry sat down on a bed. "The portkey took us to this hall and I thought it was familiar, now I know I saw it before in the Ministry of Magic… Anyway as soon as we got there Malfoy put a spell on me and I think I must've been unconscious for days… Listen, this is harder to explain than I thought…" Then Harry got an idea. "Do any of you have a pensieve?"

Hermione muttered a Summoning Charm and soon the familiar container was safely in her hands. Harry smiled and thanked her, then placed a silvery thought into the liquid. Tremendously curious, the rest almost instantly jumped into his memory.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

All six of them soon found themselves in a very dark room. The Pensieve Harry was lying unconscious, spread out on a worn couch when a man, trembling head to toe, came into the room. He was carrying a tray of food that clattered as he shook.

"Who's _that_?" Fred asked in surprise.

"He doesn't look fit to be a Death Eater" George commented.

"Wait, that's umm Pete Patgrow or something, right?" Ginny, in turn, guessed.

"Peter Pettigrew. AKA Wormtail." Harry said with the utmost loathing. He, Hermione and Ron had been staring at the man with great hatred.

Peter walked across to the unconscious Harry; obviously oblivious of the stares the three were giving him. He had just walked up to the boy, shaking more than ever, when Harry suddenly woke up, startling him. Wormtail squeaked in a rather rat-like way, jumped, quivering, and caused the tray he was carrying to fall over. Harry, still barely aware of his surroundings, turned his attention to the tray, and then slowly looked up at Wormtail. It took him a few seconds to register who the man was and when he did, he jumped up, suddenly fully conscious and took out his wand, which he was fascinated to find was still there.

"They didn't—" Fred started.

"—Take away your wand?" George finished for him.

"No. I'm guessing they were afraid I'd take it out any time and curse them or something…" Harry said thoughtfully.

"Actually, it's impossible to take away one's wand without a legal permit, or winning in a fair duel with the person, or one having surrendered it by one's own will… It would come back to its owner anyway if attempted. I'm sure they had tried." Hermione told them. That made sense, Harry thought.

Wormtail jumped, squeaking in fright, at the sight of the wand.

"What are you doing here?" Harry questioned.

"F-f-f-f-fee-d-feed" Was all the sound Peter could get out.

"Where are we?" Harry continued as he looked around. He had hoped that the battle with Death Eaters on school grounds had been a dream of his and that he was back in his dormitory and comfortably asleep. However those dreams were crushed now.

"C-c-c-c-can-n-n-not s-say" Peter stammered. Harry sat back down, but kept is wand at ready. Peter hesitated before going to pick up the tray of food that had fallen. The shock of Harry's awakening was mostly over and he was able to form coherent sentences again. "I'll g-get more f-food" Harry nodded. He felt awfully famished.

"How long have I been unconscious in here?"

"Almost a-a week" Peter said quietly as he exited the room, leaving Harry to realize just how hungry he was right then. He got up and walked around the room, trying to calm the pain that had formed in his stomach. 

"You had been unconscious for a week??" Ron asked incredulously. "Shouldn't you have died by then?" Hermione glared at him. "What? How can you expect someone who hadn't eaten or drunk anything for a week to be alive?"

"It's a spell Ron." Hermione said in exasperation, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It knocks a person unconscious for whatever period and they don't have the need to eat or drink until they wake up…" She turned to look at what the Pensieve Harry was doing and Ron stuck his tongue out at her behind her back.

"Sirius Black." Harry said calmly, sitting back down on the couch. He was holding a mirror.

"Uh, Harry?" George asked in a tone that suggested he didn't think Harry quite sane.

"It's a magical mirror, Sirius and Remus have one of them too. You just say the name of a person who has one and theirs'll contact them… And then you could talk through them." Harry explained.

"I see…" Fred said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.

"Sirius Black." He waited a bit again but nothing happened. "SIRIUS BLACK!" Nothing. Harry swore loudly and threw the mirror across the room, where it shattered into thousands of pieces. Having calmed down a bit, Harry swore again under his breath and went over to the pieces of glass. "_Remontilora_." Harry said and the pieces flew back together. It looked just about as good as new when Harry picked it up.

"Thanks for that, by the way, Hermy" Harry smiled at Hermione.

"No problem." She let the nickname slide by this once.

Just then Wormtail came back in, carrying a new tray with food and Harry quickly hid the mirror.

"Someone will be back later." Wormtail squeaked as he quickly exited the room after leaving the food with Harry. It consisted of what looked like simple Muggle fast food, containing such things as hamburgers, fries and slices of pizza. Though Harry didn't especially feel like taking food from a traitor such as Peter, his hunger won over his pride and he was soon munching happily on the provisions.

Suddenly, the scene faded and the six found themselves in the same room, only later on.

"Hey! What happened?" Ginny spoke.

"Well, nothing was really going on after that so I skipped it." Harry said. "I _think_ this is the next day but it's hard to tell."

They were still in the same room, with Harry walking around it, apparently trying to find a way out, when voices came from beyond the walls. They seemed distant and were near impossible to understand. Harry leaned in close to the wall and tried to hear something but with no avail.

"What does this tell you?" Fred asked in a voice of one giving another a lecture.

"ALWAYS carry around WWW supplies!" Both the twins chorused while the others rolled their eyes.

"Extendable Ears, just 5 Sickles a pair!" George continued in an announcer tone.

"_Exaudio_" Harry said meanwhile and the voices became more coherent.

"—No. We can't do that right under their noses." Someone said.

"They wouldn't know—"

"Of course they'd know. They always know. The trial is tomorrow, correct?" The first person continued. "We'll see then. End of discussion."

"Wait. Are they talking about Sirius's trial?" Ron questioned.

"No idea."

"Sirius Black." Harry sighed. Nothing. Then his face lit up. "Remus Lupin." He waited a bit. "Remus J. Lupin!" Suddenly, Remus's face appeared in the mirror.

"Harry?" He asked in a worried tone. "Harry! Where are you?"

"Shh!" Harry whispered. "I have no idea. I think I'm in the Department of Mysteries."

"What?" Remus asked, bewildered.

"I know but…"

"Ok, listen, Harry, we'll try to track your exact location. Contact me if anything important happens." Then Remus disappeared.

"Wait!" But he was already gone and Harry put down the mirror in exasperation.

Some time must have passed because the six visitors to Harry's memory were once again transferred to another time. Now, they kept quiet, sensing that the most important part of this journey was coming up.

"Ow." Someone swore lightly just outside the door, preceding which, there was a pop and a light banging sound, followed by a terrified squeak.

"Y-you can't go there." The frightened voice they now knew belonged to Wormtail said.

"Master's orders, Wormtail." A familiar, cold voice replied.

"But Lucius…" Peter squeaked.

"No buts, Wormtail! I am taking him, now!" Lucius Malfoy burst into the room. His cold eyes flickered in a rather un-Malfoyish way, showing something that looked suspiciously like happiness and relief for a second.

"Lucius—" Peter tried again.

"You can come along if you'd like. I don't have time for this." Lucius pushed Harry, who seemed quite willing to get out of the gloomy room, forward. Peter hesitated a bit, and then followed.

"That's Tonks, right?" Ginny asked. Harry nodded. "She's good."

"Chocolate, Peter?" Harry asked, seeing that Wormtail seemed tremendously unnerved. Peter looked at him suspiciously, but accepted the piece of chocolate. As soon as he had finished eating, he suddenly got a glazed look in his eyes.

"I put the book there." He said in a monotone voice.

"What?" Harry seemed confused.

"The book. About how to rescue Sirius. I put it there. I made sure you found it. It did the rest by itself." As if snapping out of a trance, Peter stopped talking suddenly. He looked around wildly, as if wondering whether he had said that out loud or not. Harry looked shocked but Lucius seemed indifferent as he kept walking.

"That's an interesting piece of information. We shall discuss it later. Until then, Wormtail, would you please keep such things to yourself." He said coolly.

"Wait. Did you—" George started.

"He did!" Fred exclaimed.

"Truth Treats!!" They both yelled while Harry grinned. Then they danced around him, chanting. "GO US! GO US! GO US!" to the others' laughter.

"Hmm we should add some more of the Eruptio charm… he's supposed to yell out his biggest secrets every once in a while." Fred added thoughtfully.

Finally, the three reached a large door that was all too familiar to Harry. As they went in, Wormtail tried to back out but Lucius dragged him inside.

"… a reason you're interrupting…" Fudge's voice was fading away as Ginny, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Fred and George found themselves being pulled away from the memory. They soon found themselves back in the number 12 Grimmauld Place bedroom, with Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Moody, Kiara, Allen and Dumbledore facing them.

"Pensieves are not to be messed with." Dumbledore said, though he was grinning.

"Well then, tell us what happened will you?" Sirius inquired, causing the six to launch into an explanation of everything they had just seen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I tried to make it a different format (the memory versus real life) but FFN only showed a few of the lines in the proper format so you had to figure which was which out on your own. Sorry about that. This chapter was to make up for my lack of details on Harry's imprisonment last chapter. Can't say I lack on details now that I've spent five pages on it lol. Harry was unconscious for most of the time he spent there though but I'm giving as much details as possible. Hope you like. And yes, I did think that I should have made Tonks trip as Malfoy but when I was writing I forgot and I only remembered in the morning after I posted the story already. Now, for reviews, Lil Lupin, hey! Thanks a lot. Erynwen, thanks and oh no that was definitely not the end. I've given up on trying to figure out when this will end and how but I can't see it happening any time soon. shining-star20 thank you so much! I hate Fudge too! Burning, thank you! K-Black, no problem. Thanks. Acacia Jules, aww I so know how you feel. Right now, I take comfort in thinking that in the later books, she either has to bring him back or make up such an amazing reason for his, ahem, disappearance. Which makes me totally unable to wait for the next two books. Trella thanks! two2feet, yes, everything is over *shifty eyes * right… here, this chapter is full of details for ya. Thanks for making me a fave! Smiley, aww thank you so much! I've always liked Sirius and Harry's family-like moments. CoolMarauder17, thank you! :). Hope everyone liked this chapter!


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